Nigeria may have been losing over N500 million annually on imported electric bulbs into the country as about 50% of the imported bulbs are below acceptable quality standards.
According to SON’s laboratory tests, the measured life of bulbs in Nigeria averaged between 200 to 480 hours, instead of internationally-recommended measured life of 10,000 hours.
It was revealed that when SON discovered that the country was losing so much revenue, the agency quickly increased its surveillance, leading to the clamp down on light bulbs as well as lamps entering into the country.
It would be recalled that between 2011 and 2013, SON seized and destroyed imported substandard electrical cables worth billions of naira. The substandard cables are made of iron, instead of copper, as some were coated with copper to deceive unsuspecting buyers.
