SON RENEWS ITS COMMITMENT TO PARTNER WITH FTAN IN PROMOTING STANDARDIZATION IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

The President of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria, FTAN Mr. Nkereuwem Onung has said that the Federation will continue to partner with Standard Organization of Nigeria to maintain international best practices in the tourism sector in Nigeria.

Mr. Onung was speaking when he paid a visit with the members of his Executive to the Director General of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Dr. Ifeanyi Chukwunonso, at the headquarters of the Organisation in Abuja.

During the visit, the President of FTAN  thanked SON for the level of collaboration and support the private sector has previously enjoyed. He expressed hope that the partnership between the Federation and SON will take a better turn even with this administration. 

Mr. Nkereuwem stated that the collaboration has given Nigeria a great opportunity to chair one of the prestigious seats in the ARSO TC. Mr. Nkereuwem is currently a co-chair with his counterpart from Uganda. 6 Nigerians have just been newly elected into the positions of conveners and secretaries of the technical committee sub-group. 

These were possible because of the good working relationship between the private sector and SON.

Mr. Nkereuwem said that the duty of conformity and compliance is not very easy, especially in the face of corruption bedeviling various sectors of the economy. However, he strongly believes that with the new management of the organization, things will be done right and results achieved within a short time.

He promised the support and collaboration of the private tourism sector in the upcoming conference to be organized by the Standard Organisation next month.

Responding to the presentation, the DG thanked the tourism practitioners for the visit and promised that the cordial relationship FTAN has been enjoying with his predecessors will not stop in his time rather he will improve on it.

To strengthen the collaboration and partnership with the private sector, the DG announced that the Organization has set up a Conformity Assessment desk in his office to encourage the tourism sector and see how they can match up with their counterpart from other countries of the world in terms of Standards. 

In his words, "it is believed that the services of SON is more for manufacturers rather it is also for the service industries like tourism and hospitality. " 

He promised to ensure that every sector of the economy feels the impact of the Standard Organization.

According to him, the proposed conference will allow SON to interface with tourism practitioners and proffer solutions to some of the challenges in the industry especially in the area of standardization.

He thanked FTAN for the visit and gave the assurance that the tourism industry will begin to benefit from a lot of support from SON.