FMITI launches surveillance in Gombe, Bauchi States
The Department of Weights and Measures of the Federal
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) has carried
out its annual surveillance of weights, measures, weighing instruments.
Periscope Nigeria reports that the instruments are used for trade in markets, shopping malls, quarries,
gas retail outlets and petroleum products to assess retail outlets across
Bauchi and Gombe States.
The surveillance team which came
from the headquarters and north-east zonal offices of the Department was led by Engr Geoffrey Jwan who is an Assistant Director in the Ministry Director of Weights and Measures, Mrs Comfort Lenkat Emenbu.
Addressing the Press in Gombe on Friday, Jwan and the North-East Zonal
Coordinator of the Department of Weights and Measures Mr Isah
Ahmed disclosed that the surveillance exercise was carried out in the
two States to supervise and ensure proper enforcement of the
Weights and Measures Act by the staff of the State offices.
According to him, officials would get
first-hand information from the field from users of weighing and
measuring instruments for trade; and to create awareness on the
right use of the instruments.
“Weights and Measures plays extremely important roles in the economic
and technological developments of nations and hence, it was listed on the Exclusive Legislation List of the Federal Republic of Nigeria since 1960; which led to the enactment of laws and
regulations on the use of Weights, Measures, Weighing, Measuring and Counting instruments for trade in 1962 titled CAP W3 LFN 2004 [Chapter W3 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria,
2004].
“Today, Weights and Measures is listed as Item 65 on the Exclusive Legislation List of the Nigeria Constitution,” the team said.
The team itemised services provided by the Department of Weights
and Measures to include; “mitigating the circulation of substandard weighing and measuring instruments to avoid inaccurate measurements during production of products and services, which can lead to poor quality and harmful products or services, by thoroughly evaluating the performance of newly manufactured models of the instruments to be sure that they are fit for their intended use and issuing Certificate of Pattern Approval to their manufacturers; carrying out periodic verification and inspection of the instruments to ascertain and sustain their integrity throughout their period of use and hence, the reliability of results of measurements produced using them; prevention or reduction of loss of money or value to customers and consumers of products or services which are sold by weight or measure,” they said.
The team added, “Ensuring the safety of services provided by airliners through the verification of Scales used for weighing passengers luggage at the Check-in Counters to avoid overloading which could be hazardous; and ensuring that measurements for trade are
accurate, fair, legal, transparent and uniform to boost customers’ confidence to do business transactions in Nigeria and thereby building the economy.”
The team added that most users of weighing and measuring instruments for trading are not aware of the salient provisions of the Weights and Measures Act [CAP W3 LFN 2004].
Also speaking, Emenbu advised user to buy instruments only from vendors who have obtained Certificate of Pattern Approval from the Department of Weights and Measures in line with regulation 76 to the Act to avoid the use of substandard weights or measures, “which will cause them to contravene certain provisions of the Act; submit newly bought instruments to the inspectors of Weights and Measures for verification and obtain Certificate of Verification prior to being put to use in line with Section 7(2) of the Act; pay the accurate testing fees prescribed under the Fifth Schedule to the Act; and to comply with all technical requirements of the Act such as the
Allowable Error Limits while carrying out maintenance repairs,” she said.
She warned that the Department would deal ruthlessly with unscrupulous persons who deliberately alter the settings of their instruments unjustly with the intention to cheat their customers and also those who indulge in unauthorised breaking of seals
affixed to instruments that were found not to be within tolerance during inspection. Twenty-nine (29) Flow Meters in fifteen (15) filling stations and one (1) weighbridge in one (1) quarry were rejected in the two States for different contraventions mentioned
below.
The Director of Weights and Measures noted that the contraventions mostly committed by users of weighing
and measuring instruments in the two States are, she said, “Inaccurate payments of verification fees; non-compliance with allowable error limit of +/- 0.1liter on each 20 litres dispensed by petroleum products marketers; using weighing or measuring instruments for trading without obtaining Certificate of Verification; and also excessive hose length (above 4 meters) which can lead to a contravention technically known as ‘Hose Dilation’.”
She explained that Hose Dilation is a phenomenon in which
substantial quantity of petroleum product which has been measured and costed by the meter to be paid by a customer is trapped in the Hose which expands under hot weather without being delivered to the motor tank or buyer’s container and hence, the longer the Hose the more the lost incurred by the customers.
