Speaking at the Botswana Bureau of Standards’ (BOBS) ISO/IEC accreditation handing over ceremony last week, Trade and Entrepreneurship minister, Tiroeoane Ntsima, also reaffirmed the country’s commitment to building a globally competitive manufacturing sector anchored on quality. He buttressed that sustainable export development and industrial growth can’t be realised without the production of high quality, globally competitive products. “Quality is no longer optional, it is a strategic imperative. The only factor that will distinguish our products from the rest and provide them with the necessary competitive edge is their quality," the minister said. Ntsima noted that, therefore, for Botswana to thrive in the competitive global marketplace, the country must be transformed into a quality hub. At the centre of this transformation is the effective functioning of the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI), comprising well maintained and competent institutions in Standardisation, Conformity Assessment, Metrology, and Accreditation. Equally, he stated a robust and trade-friendly Technical Regulation Framework (TRF) is also crucial. The strategic focus is aligned with Botswana’s broader vision of diversifying the economy through the creation of mega non-mining industries and the promotion of exports. “The future of our economy is going to depend necessarily on exports,” he noted, citing export development as a core national aspiration.
The baby steps being made towards strengthening Botswana’s NQI came with the recent accreditation of BOBS by the Southern African Development Community Accreditation Services (SADCAS). BOBS has now achieved ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 and ISO/IEC 17021-3:2017 certifications, enhancing its capacity to provide credible and internationally recognised product certification services. According to Ntsima, during the development of the African Quality Policy, it was revealed that 30% of consignments across the continent were returned at ports of entry due to non-compliance with quality requirements. This, he said, underscores the critical role quality compliance plays in export success. In response to these challenges, Botswana adopted its National Quality Policy (NQP) in 2022, which aims to improve both the NQI and the Technical Regulatory Framework, with a strong emphasis on private sector inclusion. “The private sector is expected to lead the industrialisation drive,” he stated. Acknowledging concerns about the high cost of certification, the minister explained that these are largely due to limitations in local testing capabilities. Despite BOBS operating various testing laboratories including Mechanical, Chemical, Microbiology, Textile, and Civil, many products still require testing abroad, something that leads to high costs and long turnaround times. “Improving our quality infrastructure will help reduce testing costs and speed up certification processes,” he said.
