Standardisation, catalyst to Africa’s economic growth- SON

The African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) over the weekend, said it has started new strategies to ensure standards in agricultural produce in Africa impact positively on the Africa economies

Dr Paul Angya, member of the ARSO Council and also the Director-General, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), stated that the standardisation of produces would boost end-product competitiveness.

Speaking at the ongoing 22 ARSO General Assembly, 54th Council Meeting and Made in Nigeria Expo in Arusha, Tanzania, Angya noted that the organisation intends to help African countries revolutionise agriculture and adopt new technologies.

The development, he said, would help Africa to move away from reliance on food imports, to securing that food supplies through rapid, sustainable increases in food production.

Angya reiterated that “Africa’s Year of Quality infrastructure” would be used to chart new priorities and strategies for agriculture.

He said that with the new standardisation, the input supply and product processing sectors would become more consolidated, more concentrated and more integrated.

On harmonization of standards to boost international trade Angya expressed optimism on the great improvement that would accrue from African countries aligning with international standards to improve their market access and boost regional trade.

He disclosed that standards had become a tool in the fight for competitiveness and for creating barriers for regional trade, emphasising the need for African standards to be a benchmark against international standards.

According to him, Africa regional cooperation and deeper integration of services and standards would increase trade among Africa countries saying this is given priority in ARSO.

Angya who explained that plans were on to ensure that membership of the body was increased to foster involvement of many regions in the intra-African trade, added:  “There is the need to strengthen Africa’s economic independence through standards and empower the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy.

“I wish to emphasise that global competition has become more intensified in terms of quality, price, supply chain management and dependability of delivery systems.  Changing consumer preferences are changing producers’ responses to market signals.

“This has further reinforced the need to harmonise standards if we have to play in the global market,” he added.

He stressed the need for ARSO to forge collaboration among national standard bodies, regional blocs, Pan African Quality Infrastructure bodies, the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), such he added would facilitate the chances of Africa becoming a major player within the global market, especially as countries only remain competitive if their companies and businesses are competitive.

The Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment of the United Republic of Tanzania Mr. Charles Mwijage used the platform to task ARSO to fast-track the harmonization process, saying it was long over-due

He also urged ARSO to develop concrete proposals in this area of harmonisation of standards, given that it is a key component of competitiveness.

“To be a part of a regional or global supply chain, the standards of a country remained a key.

“It is important at this stage to take the works of ARSO and technical bodies to the political level if harmonisation goals would be realised.

“International standards should also be part of African standards because there is no need to reinvent the wheel except   developing the ones that are peculiar to the regions to increase the economies of scale,” he added.

Dr Hermogene Nsengimana , ASRO Secretary General noted that continental development issues such as capacity building, women empowerment, value addition to agriculture  produce and link to the AU continental free trade areas were critical to Africa having its global market share

To that extent, he urged member-countries to effectively explore other international standardsation partners to fast-track industrialisation.