Burkina Faso: ABNORM sets up the Burkinabe Women, Youth and Standardization Unit to build the capacity of women and young entrepreneurs

The Burkinabe Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Quality (ABNORM) celebrated, on Monday December 4th, 2017, the World Standards Day 2017. This was the occasion for this organization to set up a called Burkinabe Women, Youth and Standardization Unit (CBFJN) to build the capacity of women and young entrepreneurs.

" Standards make cities more smart " is the topic for this day that has gathered together several stakeholders and actors of quality. Through various communications, participants were made aware of the importance and challenges of standardization.

For Burkina Faso's Minister of Trade, Industry and Handicrafts, Mr. Stephane Sanou, who chaired the launch ceremony for the day's activities, “The quality of products and services offered to consumers is an undeniable factor of competitiveness”. According to him, "standardization is the basis of the quality of the products and services offered". He recalled, by the way, that the Government of Burkina Faso, convinced of the importance of standards, adopted in October 2017, a decree aimed at the development of standardization.

Regarding the setting up of the CBFJN, the ministerial authority stated that "it will create an effective communication channel to mobilize and sensitize women and young entrepreneurs to the issues of standardization". "It will also help build the capacity of some women and young entrepreneurs to apply standards and quality management systems to facilitate their integration into the formal economy," said Minister Stephane Sanou.

For ABNORM Director General Issiaka Zoungrana, "standardization is a set of features that govern products and services; technical specifications that are developed to govern these products and services”. According to him, this day aims to bring the different concerned actors, in their respective activities, to offer quality to consumers.