Standards body to aid private sector on quality

The Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) has pledged to facilitate the private sector to improve the quality of products and services in a bid to increase exports A memorandum of understanding signed between RBS and Private Sector Federation is expected to ease access to certification services, its benefits and provide technical support to the sector in order to adapt to a wider competitive market.Managing Director of RBS, Mark Cyubahiro, says the issue of standards has been hampering the country’s private sector to increase its competitiveness on both regional and international markets. “There is an industrial revolution in the country and there is need to harmonise the standards so that our products can easily access market,” he said during the signing of MoU in Kigali.The private sector especially in the export domain has been lacking knowledge on standardisation which lowers the quality of exports thus widening the country’s trade deficit.It is expected that the understanding would also assist the informal sector which currently struggles to formalise their operations to improve quality of their products and access markets.During the first quarter of this year, the country’s imports grew to $541.5 million indicating a 30 percent increase compared to exports that fetched $104.8 million despite a 29.5 per cent increase, calling for further measures to increase exports. “Our partnership with the private sector will help in addressing the challenges Rwanda exporters have been facing on the international market,” Cyubahiro said.He said his agency would carry out standards awareness campaigns and educuate entrepreneurs to apply for quality and safety standards as the apex of value addition, and pledged to support the private sector in ensuring that products from Rwanda meet quality standards.Hannington Namara, Chief Executive Officer of PSF, says the partnership would help to identify the requirements in order to become more competitive. “Our important stake is to regularly monitor and evaluate performance of supported enterprises and advise them in order to ensure that their activities have a positive impact on their operations,” he said.Complying with standards will minimise business losses which are as a result of failure to meet standards.Robert Steven, the brand manager, soap and water control systems at Sulfo Rwanda, says standards help in regulating and controlling systems thus keeping quality afloat. “There is always a need to follow certain standards if you are to produce quality and safe products. We do that through acquiring standards,” he saidThe partnership will also tackle the challenge of substandard imports which has been frustrating RBS efforts aimed at ensuring quality assurance on the local market.

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Standards body to aid private sector on quality