adminKudakwashe Mhundwa Business Reporter —
Zimbabwe will this year host the second edition of African Organisation for Standardisation President`s forum and Made in Africa conference in March this year.
The conference to be held from March 1 to March 4 will be running under the theme, “Made in Africa as a pillar for African economic integration, industrialisation and transformation agenda”
Speaking in Harare on Tuesday, ARSO president Dr Eve Gadzikwa said the conference is a platform for business executives and ARSO stakeholders to join standardisation heads in Africa to share insights and challenges.
“One of the objectives of ARSO President`s forum and Expo is to sensitise African stakeholders to appreciate the need for promoting the Made in Africa products as a foundation for greater manufacturing and industrialisation” said Dr Gadzikwa
Various reports have shown that African countries do not trade with each other, as a result in 2012, the AU proposed that they would be a common free trade area which would be a key component of the union strategy to boast regional trade by at least 25-30 percent.
She said this would be significant in harnessing economies of scale of a larger continental market so as to participate in and share the benefits of an increasingly connected global market place.
Dr Gadzikwa said that Africa for a long time has been importing and has became a supermarket for the developed world namely the Chinese as well as Indian markets.
“Now is the time for Africa to beneficiate its raw materials into finished products and these products should be of quality. In other words they should be standardised,” she also said
ARSO also aims at creating a certification process for all products to African standards across all sectors regardless of diverse population across the continent by making sure that standard bodies across Africa must work together with the regulators.
Dr Gadzikwa said the conference would also raise awareness for SMEs to invest in quality and make sure that their products are of standard.
She said locals are also set to benefit from the conference in other sectors of the economy such as tourism considering that various dignitaries from the African union and beyond will be coming to the expo and as such ARSO has partnered with ZTA.
Online Reporter