ECOWAS laments on low quality products exported to EU

The Economic Community of West African State, (ECOWAS) says confidence in products exported from the region to the European market is very low.

Between June 2016 and October 2018, a total of 24 notifications were issued on products exported from the ECOWAS region in two years.

According to the organization, it received the notifications from international bodies including the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), questioning the level of quality of the products which included agricultural products such as cocoa beans, chemical products such as body creams, building and construction materials such as cements and iron rods as well as paints.

 At an ongoing seminar in Abidjan on a new policy to ensure high quality of products, Chief Technical Advisor of the West Africa Quality System Program, Aka Jean Joseph Kouassi said the trend is impeding trade growth in the region.

“We want to export, if we want to export to abroad for example, they want to be sure that your products have the level of quality in their market. And they will say that products coming from Africa are of poor quality, they don’t have confidence in our products,” he bemoaned.

To this end, the organization has established a regional quality Policy to facilitate trade within the region.

Plans to establish the policy, the West Africa Quality System Programme (WAQSP), began in 2015 when the organization received several reports of substandard goods from the region. Mr. Kouassi says the move is also to protect consumers.

He said “so we have to build this system to prove to them that we have the same quality as products there. We also have to protect consumers and so we will ensure this system is implemented in our countries so that our continent will not be considered as where you can come and throw waste products here.”

The Overall objective of the West Africa Quality System Programme policy is for the countries to be cognizance of quality in national development.

It is also to enable consumers identify what products are substandard and also demand for quality when purchasing the products.

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