No fewer than 60 staff of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) are undergoing Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) training to improve their service efficiency and delivery.

Mr Osita Aboloma, the Director-General of SON, declared the training open in Enugu on Wednesday for its staff in the southern part of the country.

Aboloma, represented by Mallam Usman Abdullahi, Director of Human Resources Management of SON, said that the training was meant for SON officials to relate well with Nigerians in the discharge of the agency’s mandates.

He noted that the training would make the staff be professional and live above rudimentary mistakes in the discharge of their daily duties.

His words: “The essence of this training is to improve the capacity of staff to deliver quality services and improve their relationship skills as they discharge their daily duty.

“The training aims at exploring other avenues to solve issues that concern enforcement of standards without necessarily going to the formal law courts.

“The SON Act as amended had given SON the mandate to prosecute those that go against its mandate but however we feel that there should be other avenues, that is not the courts, that SON can easily achieve the agency’s mandate.

“So, on this premise, SON is partnering with the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC) to train some of its staff on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).”

The training, according to Aboloma, will be very beneficial both to the enforcement and office staff of the agency.

Speaking, Ambassador Victor Ojaide, a facilitator of the training, noted that the training would equip SON staff on the skills for effective and objective ADR practice.

Ojaide, who is also the Vice President (Training) of ICMC, said that the training would provide tools to understand how to bring parties closer to settle issues in a harmonious manner.

“The ADR lessons will equip them on how to deal with issues and win trust and public confidence even as they discharge their duties. The training will teach better ways of approaching issues and people even as they carry out their official mandates,” he said.