Manufacturers under the auspices of the Cable Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CAMAN), has warned fake and substandard cables dealers to shape up or leave the industry.

This came as the association President, Mrs Bukola Adubi, led a delegation of cable manufacturers to the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Laboratory Complex in Lagos.

Adubi, who is also the Chief Operating Officer of MicCom Cables, noted that discrepancies in certification of cable sizes, presence of substandard cables in the market, and provision for approved 3rd party certification of cables by SON are the four major challenges faced by the industry.

“There are some so-called manufacturers of cables in the country who claim to have SON certifications, but have been found not to have testing labs.

“Some importers bring in substandard products and label them with the names of some of our members, thereby misrepresenting them. This illegal act by some unscrupulous importers has led to some of their members being blacklisted by companies, even though the products originally did not come from their factories.

“The dialogue afforded us the opportunity to present some of the challenges confronting cable manufacturing companies to SON, I am delighted to discover some steps SON had already taken to help cable manufacturers in their operations.

“This is good for us – to know that we’re on the right side and on the right team and that we are in this together. So it is obvious to see that there’s good hope, there’s plenty of opportunities. We can fight this fight together. Substandard cables, adulterated cables have no part to play anymore, because we’re all going to fight this fight to the end,” Adubi said.

She admonished those producing fake and substandard cables to shape up or leave the industry.

She said, “The people manufacturing and providing the fake and adulterated cables should be wary to know that people are coming after them. So it’s either they sit up and shape up or ship out. We’re not going to allow it any longer. Our legacies will not allow it to stand. I’m happy we’ve the support of SON and the support of the DG particularly. Give another six months, I’m sure the story will be different.”

Adubi had in an interview identified the dearth of good and experienced personnel in the cable industry as a challenge. She also listed sub-standard and adulteration of cable brands, and failures to implement local content laws by some government agencies as challenges confronting cable manufacturers.

She described duty waiver as an offshoot of financing and competitiveness, adding that if an accredited manufacturer is given a waiver on their raw materials, it will make them competitive and enable them to be able to compete with Asian and other European imports.

To address the dearth of good and experienced personnel, MicCom Cables & Wires over the years, has developed a culture of investing in building the capacity of its workforce by training them in-house, locally and sometimes sending them overseas for special training. As a result, the company is able to retain its employees for a longer time — keeping most of them for more than 20 to 30 years in the system, which enables transfer of skill sets through internal training.