Except for food and drugs, all other to do, the Nigerian National Bureau of Standards (Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON) is responsible for the development and implementation of Nigeria's imported goods and domestic manufacturing product quality standards of government agencies. In order to ensure that regulated products comply with the country's technical or other international standards that have been approved for implementation, and to protect Nigerian consumers from unsafe products or products that do not comply with the standards, the Nigerian National Bureau of Standards has decided to implement a mandatory pre-shipment conformity assessment procedure (hereinafter referred to as SONCAP) for regulated products exported to the country.
Currently, SONCAP certification involves 2 main steps: SONCAP=PC+COC
1, exporters or manufacturers apply for a PC certificate; PC is the abbreviation for Product Certificate.
2, exporters apply for COC certificate; COC is the abbreviation of Certificate of Conformity.
SONCAP certificate is a legal requirement for the clearance of controlled products in the Nigerian Customs, the lack of SONCAP certificate will result in delayed clearance of controlled products or denied access to the Nigerian domestic market. It is important to note that SONCAP applies to regulated products, while other import procedures prescribed by the Nigerian government remain valid.