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In a bid to see an accelerated industrialisation across the African continent by ensuring that African products are manufactured to international standards and enabling them to participate in intra-African and global trade, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has commissioned African Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC) in Ogun State- Nigeria, the first of its kind in Africa.
Developed to ensure that “Made in Africa” products meet the required health and safety standards, the facility is a state-of-the-art model with the capacity to offer testing, standards, certification/ assurance, inspection, and training services covering the entire manufacturing value chain but the agricultural products for a start.
Speaking at the event, the President /Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank, Prof Benedict Oramah, said $100million was budgeted for the project and many more to come. He decried that Africa loses $700million valued from rejected African products across the world due to poor quality.
According to him, Afreximbank is working with African Union, AFCFTA Secretariat and other corporate bodies to create a framework to harmonise standards across Africa for the consolidation of AFCFTA.“This will be a viable commercial enterprise to fill the gap of infrastructure deficit.
This facility would help Nigeria’s neighboring countries to promote export as they would be coming here to do testing and receive other services instead of going to Asia and Europe,” He called on the National Assembly to FastTrack the Food Safety Bill and forward to the president for assent. Expressing gratitude, the Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, said the facility was apt with the diversification drive of the federal government to move away from overreliance on oil deposit. He called on farmers, manufacturers, and others explore the opportunity embedded in the facility. “Ogun State is strategically located, so the choice of establishing this facility here was well thought out. With this initiative, our farmers would no longer go to Ghana to test their products before export. It would increase our non -oil revenue.”
He promised to provide enabling environment for the initiative to thrive to make the state remain number one in industrial revolution. He called on the entire private sector to come into the state for business discourse. “We are partnering with other corporate bodies like African Finance Corporation, Bank of Industry and others to see that we industrialise our state.
“Therefore, AQAC would facilitate trade within Africa and beyond. It would fix the problem of poor quality, create jobs and deepen health and safety of all produce and overall economic progress. So, entrepreneurs in the entire agric/ agro value chain should come and learn everything they need from beginning to the end of their enterprises,” hecharged.
Speaking also, president Mohammadu Buhari, represented by the minister of Industry, Trade & Investment, Adebayo Otunba Adeniyi, said the project was dear to him. He urged stakeholders to explore the opportunity for the growth and development of Nigeria. “This facility is dear to my heart. Let us explore the opportunity for the good of our country” he charged.
On his part, the senior Vice President Africa, Bureau Veritas, Mr. Marc Roussel, assured that its organization would promptly deliver on mandate, saying, “We shall look into the entire agricultural value chain and ensure we prioritise training and retraining across the country. We’re open for everyone in the manufacturing/ production sector.
“Bureau Veritas is a world leader in testing, inspection and certification and Afreximbank’s technical partner on the project and will manage and operate the facility. We will ensure that AQAC meets the ISO 17025 standard for testing and calibration laboratories, ensuring the credibility and reliability of the following services: Physical and chemical testing of Food and Agriculture, contaminants analysis, microbiological testing, water analysis, soil analysis, plant analysis, and organic substrate analysis, among others,” he assured.
This facility is the first in a series of AQAC which the “Bank” intends to establish across Africa to support industrialisation across the continent.
