West Africa strengthens its consumer protection mechanism thanks to the support from the West Africa Quality System Programme

The French Accreditation Body (COFRAC) has just awarded two laboratories in Senegal attestations that extend their scope of accreditation to the analysis of highly strategic products for the region: the CERES Locustox laboratory on 28th May 2018 and the National Analysis and Control Laboratory (LANAC) on 19th September 2018. Both laboratories have been supported by the West Africa Quality System Programme (WAQSP).

LANAC’s accreditation scope has been extended in the fields of histamine analysis in fishery products and the analysis of iodine in fortified salt. It is now the first laboratory in the region whose competence is recognized for quality control of iodized salt and the third one that has demonstrated competence in the field of quality control of fishery products (the first two laboratories are ONISPA in Mauritania and GSA Mycotoxin & Histamine in Ghana). The WAQSP also helped to extend the CERES Locustox laboratory’s scope of accreditation in the field of pesticide residue research on vegetable products rich in water and chlorophyll and vegetable products rich in oil (oilseeds).

Furthermore, the Programme has supported to extend the scope of accreditation of ATS and LERGC laboratories in Benin this year, the only accredited civil engineering laboratories in the region to test building materials and for soils’ analysis. The extension focused on compressibility, swelling, shear and resistance to fragmentation of building materials. The competence of all these laboratories is now globally recognized and the regional and national authorities and economic operators in the region have a control instrument and the certification of the quality of these products to better protect the consumers and to enter the international market.

The West Africa Quality System Programme (WAQSP) is funded by the European Union in the tune of 12 Million Euros and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

For more information read the online article or contact:  Mr. Bernard Bau (B.Bau [at] unido.org)