Dr. Hermogene Nsengimana, the Secretary-General of the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO), has urged African states to bolster their standards regulatory organizations so that they might serve as a catapult for economic development.

Standards, the secretary noted, remain vital to firms’ competitiveness and must be prioritized as the continent implements the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) pact to take full advantage of the world’s largest trade bloc.

“The Beginning of Trade among African Countries Under the AfCFTA Agreement: Boosting Intra-African Trade Within the African Single Market Through ‘One Standard–One Test–One Certificate–Accepted Everywhere,” was the theme of the conference.

The need to harmonize Standards and remove trade barriers

Dr. Nsengimana noted that to understand the advantages of the free trade agreement, the region’s ease of doing business must be enhanced by removing trade obstacles and harmonizing standards. The removal of these barriers, he believes, would encourage the free flow of goods from one African country to the other which would greatly reduce the cost of products on the continent.

“When we talk about one standard, we are talking about harmonization and we are looking at equal collaboration or mutual recognition arrangement so that we can help our private sector to trade from Ghana to Kenya or South Africa with one standard, so that we can reduce the cost of products.”
Dr Nsengimana

Professor Alex Dodoo, Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), mentioned that harmonizing standards in the area would guarantee that small and medium-sized businesses could access the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market without facing technical impediments.

“AfCFTA will remain a slogan if we fail to address the technical barriers to intra-Africa trade. We have to find innovative ways to accelerate the standards harmonization process for businesses to take off.

“By adhering to the global standards and removing technical barriers to trade, African manufacturers can improve their market share and increase their competitiveness thereby creating jobs and wealth for the youth.”
Prof Dodoo

Enhancing Intra-African Trade

Prof Dodoo stated that African Organization for Standardization’s primary goal is to facilitate intra-African and worldwide trade by developing and implementing harmonized standards.

Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah, Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry, and Tourism, asked all African standards organizations to make sure that their legislations were contemporary and in line with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and ARSO. He claimed this would inevitably improve doing business on the African continent.

“Once our quality policies are in line with the Pan African Quality Policy and once, we use African Standards, we will automatically reduce several barriers to trade and improve the ease of doing business on the continent.”
Mr. Ahenkorah

Quality standards, Mr. Ahenkorah argued, would boost African business and generate wealth, and put the continent at par with the world. He intimated that Africa can be great and hence every institution in Africa should put all hands on deck to see to this realization.