National Bureaus of Standards (NBS) in the region are gearing towards accreditation, the Director General of the Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) Anastase Kimonyo has said.

He said this last week at Prime Holdings, Kigali, during a two-day regional training workshop on accreditation organised by the United Nations Industries Development Organisation (UNIDO) in partnership with the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).  

"The bureaus in the EAC are gearing towards accreditation and if they are to attain this status, they should put up reasonable funds and other resources so that our labs meet high demands of internationally recognised testing capabilities,” Kimonyo said.

The workshop that attracted members from the East African Community (EAC) intended to train regional as well as Rwandan nationals on laboratory accreditation standards and other requirements.

Kimonyo highlighted that private labs and other labs falling under different government agencies are facing a lot of challenges in handling private food samples intended for exports or local commercialisation.

"Other countries in the world and Africa in particular have established accredited labs and the EAC needs to catch up with them so that our export promotion becomes cost effective,” he explained.

He also pointed out that there was no reason as to why Rwanda should not start implementing this system now that it has joined the East Africa community and that the training should be the nucleus in establishing accredited labs in the country.

According to Kimonyo, labs in Rwanda are preparing for the initial external audits from which point they shall apply for accreditation.

"In Rwanda, we highly recognise the importance of accreditation and this is evidenced in the already initiated process at Rwanda Bureau of Standards’ testing labs. Right now, we have started the process towards the accreditation of our labs,” Kimonyo added.

While making her presentation, Dr. Orna Dreazen from Israel compared the general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories.

"What we are interested in is the quality of the work that should not be affected by external pressures. Laboratories should be legally identified and services should be designed to meet the needs of the patients, customers and regulatory authorities,” Dreazen said.   

The workshop was attended by members from Bureau of Standards in the EAC while Rwanda was represented by a majority of delegates from testing labs including agriculture research labs, academic labs, bureau of standards’ labs and other medical/clinical labs.

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