Ghanaian industry says it is prepared to bear the cost of what it will take for regulatory bodies to stop shoddy or substandard goods from coming into the country to compete with local products.
The sector said that funding for bodies such as the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) and the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) to carry out their mandate is always a problem ; hence the need to support them.
The President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr. Tony Oteng-Gyasi emphasized that by the above statement, industry is not asking for discount because it will be wrong to do so.
"Discount will be a wrong policy so industry will be prepared to pay for the right prices if it will give agencies the capacity to stop shoddy goods from coming here," he stated during AGI lecture in Accra to mark its 50th anniversary.
He said that although it is a difficult job to set standards it can be done. “This is an area where I find that repeatedly our regulatory bodies don't want to have the problem of enforcement because that is a difficulty.
"That is why they all look in their laws and say that it is not our job."
Mr. Oteng-Gyasi challenged the bodies to tell industry what are the best strategies or practices and how they can be enforced.
"We need to fashion out policies to meet our requirements. We must stop some of these goods from arriving at our shelves before we go and see them and decide that it is good or not because even if it is in English some of our people cannot read."
Delivering a lecture on the "Challenges and Prospects for Achieving Global Standards within the Framework of a West African Economic Union", the Executive Director of the GSB, Mr. Adu G. Darkwa noted that whereas the union has a mission to promote economic integration among 250 million consumers to achieve a large economic block, members trade more with the European Union (EU) than among themselves.
He said often times countries confuse global standards with quality and limit it to just one institution.
He explained that broadly there are voluntary and mandatory standards, with the latter generally backed by law and can be enforced by an institution.
"Broadly standards by definition are conscientious important documents prepared with agreement and not just something that any group of people for their own selfish interest can define and impose on others."
Therefore, he said it is crucial that the widest possible participation be guided not only by industry but governments as well.
Mr. Darkwa cited the lack of awareness and usage among stakeholders, stakeholder participation, strength and growth of stakeholder participation and regional policy commitment to standard in the sub-region as some of the challenges to achieving global standards in Africa.
"Development from scratch for national standard requires technical expertise. Although it is appropriate to adopt national standards, on the other hand adoption of international standards reduces dumping and leads to better opportunities for countries that can't produce"he argued.
He stated that economic is now technology driven and therefore if countries lack it then the end product would not meet the requirement.
For that reason, he said government must create an efficient infrastructure to deal with this element. We must have the capacity to enforce the standards in as much as we have the standards.
Mr. Darkwa said that by achieving standards it will improve the quality of locally manufactured products and enhance market access, enable conformity to domestic regulations and ensure the health and safety of the citizenry.
"Less than 25 companies in Ghana have received ISO 9000 certification and we must work at that because the returns are immense."
He added, "It is important for us to work together so that by our collective numbers, combining our expertise we can achieve a lot."
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