Farouk Salim takes over as new SON Director – General

A new Director General/Chief Executive has taken over at the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). He is Mallam Farouk Salim, who took over the baton of leadership from Osita Aboloma at a short ceremony which held, Monday, at the Conference Room of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Abuja.

The ceremony was witnessed by the Minister, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; the Permanent Secretary and Chairman, SON Governing Council, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo; and some members of management of the Ministry and SON.

Speaking on his vision for the organisation in response to the handover speech by his predecessor, Farouk Salim promised to bring changes by promoting public safety, the role of standards in local manufacturing, import and export as well as creating an enabling environment for innovations that will stimulate national self-sufficiency.

The new Director General promised to bring his core competencies in organisational restructuring, quality assurance and project management to bear in driving the relevance of SON in national socio-economic development further.

Salim stressed his desire to strengthen enforcement through increased cooperation with the relevant authorities like the Police and the Judiciary, work more closely with the National Assembly and the Executive arm of Government to update regulations and penalties as well as lobby for improved budgetary allocations for needed improvements and staff welfare.

“We would also leverage on information and communication technology to disseminate our activities more efficiently, real time, in order to engender greater stakeholders’ buy-in and revamp public confidence in our organisation”, he said.

The SON helmsman also promised to also lessen red tape, further simplify payment systems through increased investment in information technology, to guarantee improved service delivery, operational efficiency and encourage customer feedback and suggestions towards achieving the goals.

He assured the staff of a level playing field to enable free flow of ideas and expression of competencies and urged them all to continue to give their best to the nation through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria.

Moreover, the new SON Chief Executive promised to make stakeholders, particularly the organised private sector groups, a fulcrum of his administration’s focus.

Mallam Salim expressed appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for the opportunity to further contribute to national development through the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, stressing that he would put in his best to justify the confidence the president has reposed in him. He also expressed appreciation to his predecessor for his selfless services to SON in the last four years as he wished him well in his future endeavour.

Welcoming the incoming Director General on behalf of the management and staff, Osita Aboloma commended his predecessors for laying a solid foundation for the advancement of standardisation activities in Nigeria in line with international best practices.

He assured Mallam Salim of bequeathing to him, a crop of highly competent staff in virtually all fields of standardisation, who according to him, compare favourably with their counterparts in the developed economies of the world.

Aboloma stated that the last four years has brought forward greater relevance of the SON mandate to the general socio-economic development of the Nigerian nation more than ever before.