Last week, the Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) launched the quality marks for locally manufactured products. These included the Standardisation mark for basic requirements of hygiene and safety of health, the Environmental management systems (FSMS) for environmental protection and the quality management system (QMS).

The initiative will, without doubt, boost exports since products that carry the sophisticated marks enhance consumer confidence.

Now that the marks have been launched, manufactures need to be sensitized so that they quickly submit their products for testing and marking before they are exported. With the country looking to tap into the wider East African market and beyond, it is important that their products pass all the quality controls. One of the huddles in the export/import business is inspection, but with the marks, this huddle will be eliminated, thus promoting doing business across borders.

Additionally, companies should seriously invest in research since this is the only way through which they can produce goods that carry the high standard that is normally set by the quality controls. It would be a huge loss for a business to invest in a product only to fail the quality test when it’s set to hit the market.

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