The African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) has announced plans to support 100 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa to attain a continental certification that will promote intra-Africa trade and increase participation in the Continental Free Trade (AfCTA).
Dr. Hermogene Nsengimana, the ARSO Secretary General and Chairperson of the Pan-African Quality Infrastructure (PAQI), said that this move is to ensure quality, avoid copyright thefts, and prevent fake products on the market.
“ARSO is set to assist investors in obtaining the ARSO certificate that will allow them to sell their products across the entire continent. This initiative will also help reduce the costs investors currently incur when seeking authorization to access international markets,” Nsengimana said.
Dr. Hermogene Nsengimana, the ARSO Secretary General
Nsengimana said that SMEs are the backbone of intra-Africa trade development and if they innovate and are willing to implement and conform to the standards, they will highly benefit from having an ARSO mark on their products.
To enable this process, Nsengimana explained that ARSO will work in collaboration with national standards/certifying bodies in each country to support them in this journey but also to take care of the costs that the SMEs would incur in acquiring an ARSO certification.
Dr. Nsengimana speaking to local Rwandan SMEs representatives
Nsengimana was speaking to the media at a 2-day training on conformity assessment and the use of certification marks to promote intra-Africa trade, which brought together National Standard Bodies and SMEs from six countries to discuss the urgency of adopting harmonized African Standards and how certification boosts product credibility, reduces export barriers, and increases market access.
ARSO’s goal is to bring all African countries to the same pace of having their products certified at the continental level to leverage the potential benefits of the existing AfCTA agreement.
With over 2,000 standards (about 18.3%) that have been harmonized at the continental level, only six countries (Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Zambia, Senegal, and Togo) have officially joined the ARSO certification conformity assessment agenda, while others are still in the process.
“We call on more countries to take advantage of the opportunities that this continental certification presents. Having products that are ARSO certified will increase intra-Africa trade and boost the SMEs sector market reach,” Nsengimana said.
“We will also be implementing peer review mechanisms to self-evaluate the sector’s performance towards maintaining the standards, and market surveillance will also be key to ensure the products are up to the standards,” Nsengimana said.
Jean Pierre Bajeneza, the Ag. National Certification Division Manager at Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), said that the ARSO mark will not take away the need to acquire the local S-Marks because Rwanda, which is already trading in the AfCTA framework, will have to move towards ARSO certification to increase its trade reach.
L-R: Rwanda SMEs representatives Diane Ishimwe (Cellion International Ltd) and Emmanuel Nsabinama (Sina Gerald Urwibutso)
“Having the ARSO mark on our products is highly needed because it creates more trust in the international market, even when we have our own standards that take into consideration all the international standards,” Bajeneza said.
Bajeneza said that the SMEs which will qualify for the free ARSO certification mark are those with an annual turnover of less than Rwf500 million but also have recorded financial records on taxes and returns.
He also called on Rwandan SMEs to show their desire to reach self-reliance and self-declaration on product standards as an individual step to getting certified on the local and continental level.
SMEs representatives like Diane Ishimwe (Cellion International Ltd) and Emmanuel Nsabinama (Sina Gerald Urwibutso) said that the training was an eye-opener to the opportunities and benefits of acquiring an ARSO mark.
