Standards Organisation of Nigeria officials visit Calabar plant to inspect facemasks meet guidelines

OFFICIALS from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (Son) have undertaken a quality assurance inspection of the Cross River Garment Factory (CRGF) in the capital Calabar to ascertain that its goods conform with agreed guidelines.

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, there has been a huge scarcity of facemasks, forcing Nigeria to look inwards and commence domestic production. As part of this drive, the Cross River Garment Factory stepped up the production of ankara barrier masks and the Son officials visited to facility to ensure they met set standards.

Over the weekend, the Cross River State government introduced a no masks, no movement policy, compelling everyone to wear one when in public. With production of the facemasks expected to skyrocket, the Son inspection team led by its Cross River State coordinator, Michael Ogbuji, visited the Calabar facility on behalf of its director-general, Osita Aboloma.

Edet Joseph,  the acting CRGF acting managing director, described the ankara material being used for the barrier masks as 100% cotton and sourced from neighbouring Abia State. This, he said, was in line with the backward integration strategy of the government.

Mr Joseph stated that all precautionary safety measures were being observed in the mass production of the reusable masks with capacity for 100,000 units per day. Mr Ogbuji explained that the inspection was aimed at ensuring that firms producing masks complied with the standards provided by Son to meet Nigeria’s need during the current pandemic.