NYARUGENGE - The Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) has called upon the public to ensure that product quality and inspection measures are duly respected. The call was made by RBS Director General, Dr. Anastase Kimonyo Monday on the sidelines of a seminar on food safety awareness at Kigali Serena Hotel. He added that the move sought to keep substandard products off the market. The RBS’ crackdown on such products comes in the wake of the Commerce Ministry’s call for thorough product quality improvement. "People should not perceive our efforts to inspect standards of both locally produced and imported products as a stumbling block,” he said.

"They should support them since it’s a permit for their products to enter the market.”

Although RBS is mandated to revoke manufacturing and importation licences of firms that trade in substandard products, it still lacks a high-tech laboratory to test them.

But Kimonyo promised that plans were underway to address that challenge and hoped to have the necessary high-tech laboratory in place by next year.

"We are determined to work together with the business community to step up co-operation in quality inspections,” he added.

The RBS boss observed that, in a national, regional and global marketplace, product safety was an issue facing the entire community.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has intervened to address the issue through its East African Community (EAC) Product Safety Project.

The head of UNIDO operations in Rwanda, Emmanuel Karenzi, promised the organisation’s support for EAC member states to uplift their capacities in product safety inspection.

Ends