SON: Back to the Basics with Metrology
No one likes to be cheated; we all love to have a fair deal in our day to day transactions, whether we are purchasing groceries, food items, fuel, or toiletries. In every transaction, an impartial unseen third party watchdog is an essential element to ensure fair and honest play. Hence, Nigeria’s National Metrology Institute- a Quality Infrastructure when functional, will eliminate the incidence of inaccurate and short measures in trade, manufacturing, export, and import activities in Nigeria. Even the holy book says; “But thou shalt have a just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have”.
Standards Organisation of Nigeria, under the leadership of Dr. Joseph Odumodu, who assumed the office as Director General in 2011 with a singular, compelling vision to have Nigerian made products sit side by side with the world’s best under the acronym MINFOW (Made-in-Nigeria for the World), is making concerted efforts to alleviate the dearth in the nation’s quality infrastructure and enhance the quality culture that has become crucial if we are ever going to succeed in the enthronement of standards.
Hence, a ground breaking ceremony of Nigeria’s National Metrology Institute (NMI), that was performed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment last week is a laudable move by SON, building on the recently upgraded metrology laboratories in Lekki and the recently commissioned accredited biological and chemical food laboratories. Ironically, Nigeria is just laying a foundation for metrology, when the world will celebrate metrology the “World Metrology Day” on the May 20th, 2015, under the theme: “Metrology and Light”. Many audacious projects on quality infrastructure are currently ongoing which proves that someone has finally decided to stop paying lip-service to policies, and is doing something to fill the gaping crack that quality infrastructure deficit created.
The NMI, a component of quality infrastructure will consolidate quality infrastructure and the quality culture in Nigeria. Quality infrastructure refers here to all aspects of metrology, standardisation, testing, quality management, certification and accreditation that have a bearing on conformity assessment. A National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) is the national institutional framework that establishes and implements the practice of standardisation, including conformity assessment services, metrology, and accreditation. Information available to me has it that the institute covers the following scopes: Small & Big Mass (with Density), Temperature (with Humidity), Pressure, Length & Dimension, Small & Big Volume, Force, Flow, Viscosity, Density, Torque, Acoustic, Electrical, Time & Frequency, Hardness, Vibration, Radiometry, Photometry, Metrology in Chemistry. Information also has it that the construction of the project shortly to be flagged-off will take about two years to complete.
Why Metrology? Metrology is simply the science of measurement. In reality, it is much more meaningful and important to modern life than the definition would suggest because it goes beyond being just a discipline of physical science, deeply into the base of our daily activities; we all use metrology without realizing because measurement is a scientific, economic and social necessity. Hence, the answer to the question why metrology is, to ensure that measurement which is part of real world works.
Metrology, while often mistaken for meteorology (the science of measuring weather), is a very widely used field, and there are actually three major types of metrology used in today’s world; Industrial, Scientific and Legal metrology.
Virtually every area of human endeavor requires measuring operations. From the production of pharmaceuticals, the dosing of drugs, the measurement of radiation in radiotherapy, food safety, road safety, environmental safety and protection and many others require measuring operations that are vitally important activities for public health. The reliability of measurement instruments in operating theatres or intensive care units is critical. Even when you visit your local market to get garri, rice, fish, chicken and beef it’s metrology all the way. In the supermarket, one of the first things we check out is the quantity and will often reject a product that comes short in quantity.
Metrology governs transactions ensuring safety and value for money. All transactions made by individuals and companies involve measurements: dosing of foodstuffs, petrol at the pump or on the pipeline, retail or bulk weighing, etc. Measurement is an essential factor in the relations between customers and contractors. Measurement enables our industries to be innovative and competitive. Competitiveness involves quality, which is the ability of a product to meet consumer and user requirements, and which involves all types of measurement in order to study and satisfy customer expectations. Quality can be demonstrated to customers through certification, itself based on measurements. Competitiveness assumes that industry measures and precisely controls the production volumes and the performance of the production tool, and that it minimizes the costs of rejects and rework operations.
Metrology increases knowledge. In academic and fundamental research, metrology is present at every step. It is used to design the conditions for observation of a phenomenon, to build and qualify the instruments required for its observation and to determine whether the results obtained are significant.
From a trade or commerce perspective, consumers and traders make decisions based on measurement results daily, meaning that metrology affects economic and personal well-being. Thus, a well-functioning society must have confidence in its measurements. Governments therefore need to give society the means to establish confidence in measurement results, so that traders, consumers, regulators, industry and others can make informed decisions based on accurate measurements. This is a role supported and facilitated by a sound legal metrology system. In fact, public trust in good measurement enforcement encourages respect for and compliance with the law.
Measurements made outside the legal metrology framework are often subject to challenge and may incur costs to both industry and consumers. When measurement evidence is fully supported by traceable measurements, i.e., measurements that can be traced back to national and international measurement standards, this reduces cost and time in court. Furthermore, a formal legal metrology system which is harmonized to internationally accepted requirements promotes confidence and clarity of measurement. This reduces barriers to trade and can assist developing economies like Nigeria to participate more fully in the global trading system and support their national development. Additionally, legal metrology can help to ensure that trade measuring instruments are fit for their intended use and meet international standards.
The bold strides of SON under Odumodu which includes the refurbishment of existing laboratories in Enugu (mechanical and building), the electrical lab in Lekki, Lagos with considerable work in the Kaduna lab, and the recent commissioning of two food laboratories (chemical and biological) accredited by the International Laboratories Accreditation Commission (ILAC) of the United States. Information available to me has it that these two facilities can test and certify over 200 food products. The days when Nigerian cocoa, cashew, melon and similar items were rejected or discounted at the global markets due to some content defects are over, giving full confidence to Nigerian non-oil exporters and their foreign partners because anything tested and certified within the approved scope will be accepted worldwide.
SON is equally putting up a laboratory complex in Ogba, Lagos. Structural works are completed and soon the equipment and furnishing will begin and on completion, 20 composite laboratories of global standards will be running. The facility will house another 15 laboratories in the second phase of development.
I strongly suggest that SON should not just be engrossed with the euphoria of erecting labs or a National Metrology Institute, but the agency should concern herself with ensuring a smooth process of procuring state-of-theart facilities in the Institute and develop a foolproof system of training and retraining impartial and excellent personnel to run the Institute. Human capital development is a key component to the success of endeavors as this. This will ensure the NMI hits the ground running, delivering safety, value and fairness to Nigerians.
To wrap this up, it is central to note that metrology is a basic necessity in our national life if we are ever going to succeed in our effort to diversify the economy and transform Nigeria into an industrialized state. Unfortunately, the Metrology Institute is a relatively new concept in Nigeria, but it’s long overdue and definitely a welcome development, because as it is said; “it is never too late to do things right”. Many thanks to SON for bringing metrology our way at this time, because without doubt, it is fundamental to our economic well being as a nation and critical in our quest for economy diversification and industrialisation.