SOAC joins ILAC as an affiliate member and fully adheres to AFRAC

SOAC joins ILAC as an affiliate member and fully adheres to AFRAC

SOAC, the West African Accreditation Body has been accepted as Affiliate Member of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), 16 August 2018, and Full Member of the African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC), 27 August 2018.

The ILAC Affiliate Membership is the recognition of the willing of SOAC to deliver accreditation services in accordance with relevant international standards (notably, ISO/IEC guides & standards) as well as ILAC policies relating to accreditation of Inspection bodies and laboratories.

The AFRAC Full Membership is the recognition that SOAC has been appointed as the accreditation body of height Member States in West Africa. Also, SOAC is committed to operate in accordance with international standards (notably ISO/IEC guides & standards), the relevant international documents (ILAC policies as well as International Accreditation Forum (IAF) policies relating to accreditation of certification bodies) and the requirements of AFRAC.

The AFRAC Full Membership of SOAC offers various advantages, notably it authorizes SOAC to participate to AFRAC strategic meetings with the necessary voting rights.

The next challenge for SOAC will be the issuance of the first accreditation certificates as well as the preparing of the international acceptance of these certificates.

This SOAC result is strengthening the ECOWAS Regional Accreditation System (ECORAS). Indeed, we should remember that the ECORAS has so far registered three accreditation bodies: GhaNAS from Ghana, NiNAS from Nigeria and SOAC for UEMOA Countries. NiNAS has been accepted Full Member of AFRAC in May 2018 and Associate Member of ILAC in June 2018. Also, ECORAS has been accepted Stakeholder Member of AFRAC in April 2018. The ECORAS is consolidating, by this way, its international recognition for the benefit of West African conformity assessment bodies.

This program is funded by the European Union with the technical support of UNIDO, the implementing Agency

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Commision of the European Union

Copyright - 2019 - ECOWAS AGENCY FOR QUALITY

SOAC joins ILAC as an affiliate member and fully adheres to AFRAC | ECOWAQ

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