EU supports setting up of national accreditation body
The European Union’s Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling (TRAQUE) programme will, this year, focus on speeding up the process of establishing a National Accreditation Body for conformity assessment bodies, the Programme Director, Mr Michael Senayah has said.
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He said the programme last year focused on the refurbishment of laboratories and the provision of equipment to various conformity assessment bodies, but would this year channel its resources into taking the establishment of the National Accreditation Body to an advanced stage.
Currently, Ghana does not have a National Accreditation Body and local conformity assessment bodies have to use the often expensive services of foreign accreditation bodies.
The existence of a proper accreditation scheme and infrastructure would therefore provide Ghanaian laboratories the recognition and provide local and affordable alternatives to obtain accreditation of ISO conformity assessment standards.
This will also mitigate the costs businesses incur by using foreign accreditation bodies for this exercise.
It is against this background that the EU, through its TRAQUE initiative, embarked on a project last year to support the country in the establishment of a National Accreditation Body which would provide standards to laboratories.
2015 projects
He said it invested seven million euros into the provision of equipment, refurbishment of laboratories and the provision of grants in 2015.
According to him, 2015 was one of its busiest years as it refurbished laboratories of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Food Research Institute (FRI), and that of the Veterinary Services Directorate to modern standards.
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It also provided 28 national laboratories across Ghana with equipment worth six million Euros.
Among the laboratories provided with this state-of-the-art equipment are the Ghana Standards Authority, Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Revenue Authority, Food Research Institute, Plant Protection and Seed Directorate among others.
It also supported the Ministry of Trade and Industry to draft an Accompanying Measures Strategy for Ghana in the Economic Partnership Agreement, which is to enable Ghana take full advantage of the benefits of the EPA.
Mr Senayah said it also provided grants to the tune of one million Euros to four institutions namely Food and Drugs Authority, National Board for Small Scale Industries, Ghana Export Promotion Authority and the Ghana Standards Authority.
This was to help them organise training workshops on aflatoxins in groundnuts, food hazard analysis, green label certification among others. — GB