Favour Nnabugwu
The lack of institutional
accreditation body in the country have hindered access of goods and services to
other countries of the world, the Minister of State for Industry Trade and
Investment, Hajia Aishat Abubakar has said. Abubakar at the opening ceremony of
the 7th African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC) hosted by the Standard
Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in Abuja yesterday, said the establishment of a
national accreditation body in the country would boost the access of goods and
services of small scale to other countries.
The establishment of a
well-functional national accreditation body would provide the requisite
infrastructure to support the growth of the over 37 million Micro, Small and
medium Enterprises in the country by enhancing their productive capacities and
production processes. “The benefits of the availability of the services to the
MSMEs cannot be over-stated since it would enhance the competitiveness of their
products, thereby availing them unfettered access to both domestic and
international markets”.
She explained that the establishment of the
body would guarantee speedy economic development of the country given the fact
that SMEs form the bedrock of the economic development of most countries.
Abubakar lamented, “The situation is most severe in resources dependent
countries such as Nigeria, where crude oil still remains the main stay of the
country, accounting for over 80 percent of its foreign exchange earnings.”
She further stated, “This precarious
situation espouses the compelling need for Nigeria and other African countries
to take the necessary steps to diversify the economies and move away from
over-dependence on primary commodities whose prices are usually at the whims
and caprices of the international markets”
AFRAC Chairman, Mr Ron Josias
believed that the establishment of a institutionalised accreditation body in
Nigeria would enable the country to deal with the threat of withdrawal of
accreditation services for political and economic reasons by developed
economies. He opined that it would provide Nigeria with the required platform
to negotiate Mutual Recognition
Agreements (MRAs) among governments
for mutual acceptance of test, inspection and certification agreements that
would help save time and money for both exporters and importers Josias noted,
“The establishment of a national accreditation body that is linked with
regional and international accreditation bodies can help Nigeria demonstrate
competence and confidence to end users of our products and services from other
regional economies that the quality of goods and services that are of origin
from the country and certified by a nationally accredited certification body
are safe for use.”
The 5-day meeting brought together
members from more than 10 countries including Nigeria, Tunisia, Botswana,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya Mauritius and South Africa with Germany among others in
attendance The African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC) is a cooperation of
accreditation bodies, sub-regional accreditation cooperation and stakeholders
whose objective is to facilitate trade and contribute to the protection of
health, safety and the environment, in Africa and thereby improve Africa’s
competitiveness.
Vanguard News
Vanguard News
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