West Africa is catching up in the field of accreditation

The 9th General Assembly of the African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC) was held in Mauritius, from 22 to 28 September 2018, with the participation of GhaNAS, the accreditation body of Ghana, the NiNAS, the accreditation body of Nigeria, the SOAC the accreditation body of eight countries in the region, and the ECOWAS Regional Accreditation System (ECORAS). It was an opportunity to note the significant progress made by West Africa in the field of accreditation.

For example, during the GA Gala Dinner, the NiNAS and the SOAC were awarded their certificate of acceptance in the AFRAC "FULL MEMBER" category which means full rights for voting during GAs.

Also, the representatives of the ECORAS and the ECOWAS Commission have received certificates of acceptance of their respective institutions as "AFRAC STAKEHOLDER MEMBER".

In addition, the Director of Accreditation of NiNAS, Mrs. Lawrena OKORO, has been elected Chair of the AFRAC Marketing Committee. SOAC's CEO, Mr. Marcel Gbaguidi, was co-opted to the "MRA & Evaluators Documents" sub-committee. This subcommittee of the Mutual Recognition Agreements Committee (MRA Committee) audits the performance of evaluators and proposes working procedures for peer evaluations. It should be noted that Mr. GBAGUIDI was, by decision of the MRA Committee, maintained as an AFRAC Peer Evaluator.

AFRAC has also awarded certificates of appreciation to the pool of experts who have supported, from 2010 to 2018, the process for its recognition by the International Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). SOAC CEO was among the recipients.

SOAC will host the 10th AG of AFRAC in 2019 in Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire.

Last but not least, as a sign of the special attention given to West Africa, this year, AFRAC chose to invite ECORAS to participate as an observer in the meeting of its Executive Committee (EXCO). The EXCO is the highest AFRAC decision making Committee in charge of proposing to the GA approval the strategic orientations for the development of accreditation on the continent.

For the President of ECORAS and DG of NiNAS, Mr. Celestine OAKNYA "all these results are proof that West Africa is resolutely committed to catch up in accreditation. They also reward the efforts made by the region over the last fifteen years for the development of quality infrastructure in general and accreditation in particular ".

According to the latter, "at the end of the day, it is the West African consumer who is the winner since, thanks to accreditation, she/he can rely on an increasingly reliable market surveillance mechanism allowing progressively  access to sure and healthy products and services.

ECORAS, SOAC on the one hand and NiNAS on the other hand are respectively supported by the West African Quality System Program (WAQSP) and the Nigerian Quality Infrastructure Program (NQIP), both financed by the European Union and executed by UNIDO.