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Eve Gadzikwa, the director-general of the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) has been elected the first female president of the African Organisation for Standardisation (Arso). She was elected president of the continental body at the 21st Arso general assembly meeting in Ethiopia last month. Gadzikwa said that her three year tenure will start next year.
“I’ll take over formally from the current Arso president Joseph Odumodu of Nigeria when his term of office ends in 2016 and this is a huge honour to be able to represent my country at continental level and this will bring more benefits to Zimbabwe,” she told our Harare Bureau.
“As Zimbabwe moves together with the rest of African continent towards realisation of its ambitious goal of forming a Continental Free Trade Area by 2017, Arso has redoubled its efforts of harmonising standards to facilitate inter and intra Africa trade.” Gadzikwa said her election as the first female president of Arso came at the right time when the strategic theme of Arso for 2016, was “The role of standardisation in women’s empowerment with regards to the vision 2063”.
The theme was borrowed from the African Union 2015 one. She added that Arso was in the process of streamlining the SMEs in national economies and global trade, which will also benefit local SMEs. “I’m also pleased to inform you that Arso acknowledges the great support the government has given it. President Mugabe who is also the AU chairman is among the nine African heads of states who signed the constitution of Arso membership,” she said.
Arso in an intergovernmental body established in 1977 by 21 African governments and is mandated to promote standardisation and related activities in Africa with the aim of facilitating intra-African trade and international trade of goods and services. — BH24
derick.khumalo