RBS partners with media to fight substandard products

The national standards body is partnering with media in educating the public to be vigilant on what they consume as part of the awareness campaign to fight substandard products on the market.Media practitioners gathered in a one day training organised by Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) which aimed at building an effective mechanism for communicating.Journalists were introduced to standardisation and conformity assessment which include inspections, certification, and verifications. Mark Bagabe, Managing Director RBS, said that increasing awareness about quality and standards of products will help in reducing the number of substandard products that may be harmful to human life and environment. It is hoped that once journalists are well equipped with knowledge related to standards it will be reflected in the public awareness. “We have been fighting this war alone but I believe partnering with the media is going to help us to inculcate the culture of standardisation among stakeholders and the public will be aware why products must be certified,” Bagabe said during a media workshop at RBS on Wednesday.“We want to strengthen the Bureau’s effectiveness through information sharing, aiming at excellence, and promoting accessibility of the Bureau’s work,” he addedHe called on food processors to ensure that their products are certified to protect consumers from microtoxins that may affect their health.“It is important that products that we use such as foods get certified because they directly affect our lives,” he said.There are 5,000 priority standards that have to be aligned with EAC standards and only 1,500 have been aligned, a challenge that is hampering trade within the region, a move attributed to lack of awareness on the importance of certification and complying with international standards.RBS is a public institution that develops and implements national standards and provides conformity assessment to facilitate trade through conformance to the set quality and safety standards.Bagabe noted that there is need for adoption of standardisation and conformity assessment services, leading to certification of Rwanda products and services and increased competitiveness on the market place. He said, “This will contribute to economic growth policies through improved competiveness and branding of Rwanda”.Over 60 products have so far been certified with the Bureau saying there is need to increase sensitisation to the private sector to have more products certified to increase its competitiveness.“The standards awareness campaign will help us in educating the entrepreneurs that quality and safety standards are the apex of value addition,” he addedBahati Twahirwa, a civil engineer with RBS, called on the media to help people identify substandard products that maybe on the market so that they can be removed and destroyed.

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RBS partners with media to fight substandard products