Quality Policy becomes mainstream in West Africa

With the adoption of the National Quality Policy (NQP) by Benin on 11th July 2018, a significant number of West African countries have adopted their National Quality Policy.

The document was adopted during the Council of Ministers chaired by the President of Benin, Mr. Patrice Talon. According to the report of the Council of Ministers, ''[…] quality issues are of particular importance because they are a condition for the competitiveness and access of products to regional and international markets.'' This adoption will allow the government to take the appropriate measures to harmonize and align conformity assessment mechanisms in the country, upgrade SMEs and impact all sectoral policies in Benin.

After Burkina Faso, Mali, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Mau­ritania, Senegal and Niger, Benin is the 8th country in the West African region to have adopted its NQP. However, the 8 remaining countries have their NQPs already drafted with the support of ECOWAS and the West Africa Quality System Programme (WAQSP) funded by the European Union in the tune of 12 Million Euros and implemented by UNIDO. All 16 national quality policies are aligned with the regional ECOWAS Quality Policy (ECOQUAL) adopted by ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in February 2013.

Read the WAQSP website article here.

For more information: Mr. Bernard Bau (B.Bau [at] unido.org (B[dot]Bau[at]unido[dot]org))