The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) was established by an enabling Act Number 56 of December 1971 with the commencement date of January 1971. The Act has four (4) amendments: Act Number 20 of 1976, Act No. 32 of 1984 & Act No. 18 of 1990. It currently operates under SON Act No. 14 of 2015.

SON's governing council is known as the Nigerian Standards Council. This is a policy making body for supervising the administration and financial management of the organisation. The Director General is the Chief Executive whose responsibilities revolve around the day-to-day administration of the organisation within the broad guidelines approved by the Council.

The mandate of the organisation includes, preparation of standards relating to products, measurements, materials, processes and services and their promotion at National, Regional and International levels, certification of products, assistance in the production of quality goods & services, improvement of measurement accuracies & circulation of the information relating to standards.