The Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) has extended Société Générale de Surveillance’s (SGS) contract by four months to give the standards body more time to select new firms for the pre-shipment inspection scheme. The firm’s contract expired in March.

SGS is currently the only firm handling pre-shipment inspection of imports destined for Rwanda on behalf of RSB. This done under the Imports Products Conformity Assessment to Standards (IPCA) scheme to ensure only imports that meet standards are shipped into the country.

Philip Nzaire, the RSB quality assurance director, said they were forced to extend SGS’s contract because they have not yet completed the tendering process to select new service providers.

He added that the standards watchdog is evaluating bids submitted before it can announce firms to do the job. Nzaire did not say when the contracts will be awarded to companies.

"We extended SGS’s contract to allow us more time to go through the procurement process and soon more firms will be awarded contracts,” he said.

RSB called for qualified firms to bid for the job early this year; and targets hiring as "many firms as possible to boost service delivery and ensure efficiency,” Dr. Mark Cyubahiro Bagabe, the standards body boss was quoted as saying in January.

The inspectors will be based in Asia, especially China, Europe, Australia, America, Africa and the Middle East.

These countries are currently being served by SGS, which importers say is overstretched.

Bagabe said they decided to hire many firms basing on the fact that "one company cannot spread its wings across the globe”.

"For us to be able to provide fast services to business people, it’s imperative to contract more companies to do the job,” he said.

Pre-shipment inspection is aimed at ensuring that all the imports destined for Rwanda meet applicable standards before they are shipped to guard against dumping of fake and substandard goods into the country.

business@newtimes.co.rw