The Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ACCSA)

Press release

The Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA) launched an ISO standards quality management support service.

In an increasingly globalize economy, the production for export market is highly dependent on the adherence to quality. Ethiopia is currently in the accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Being a member to WTO requires the country to open up most of the sectors of the economy, and in effect, the enterprises will be faced with increased competition internationally. Those enterprises can then be successful only if they can produce quality products.

Meeting this, in turn, requires the availability of a national quality infrastructure in the country. The National Quality Infrastructure Strategy (NQIS) for Ethiopia was unavailable until recently. Now it has been drafted by the Quality Infrastructure component of the engineering capacity building program (ecbp) in collaboration with the Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE), and was endorsed by the council of ministers.

National Quality Infrastructure is made up of five components: Standards, Metrology, Testing, Certification and Accreditation. Based on this structure, Ethiopia is to embark on instituting a modern quality infrastructure system; separating the service rendering organizations from that of the regulatory bodies which has, so far, been solely performed by QSAE. 

Ethiopia is currently in the quality movement.  AACCSA wants to join the movement, and in a bid to widen its business support services to the business community, it has commenced a quality management certification service on various ISO standards.

A project office has been set up to this effect and, as a pilot project for the initial period, a total of 40 firms will be assisted: 25 companies will be supported for instituting ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System (QMS), 8 companies in ISO 22000:2005 Food Management System (FMS) and 7 companies will be led to implement ISO 14000:2004 Environmental Management System (EMS). The quality support unit is also to give consultancy and advisory service to both member and non-member companies in the country.

AACCSA recognizes the increased difficulty exporting companies face internationally due to the inability to meet quality, safety and environmental standards.

The annual survey of ISO (ISO survey 2007) indicates that the Ethiopian companies certified to ISO 9000:2000 up to this time is below 30, which is far below the performance of other countries, even by the standards of African countries with similar level of economic development.

The low level of support in the quality effort of firms as well as the lack of sufficient intervention of trade promotion agencies and chambers’ of commerce could be sited as the reason for the low level of awareness and implementation of quality management standards.

To address the problem, AACCSA believes that the establishment of the quality certification unit will help in raising the awareness of the business community to quality and international standards; will enhance the competitiveness of companies as well as creates synergy among other stakeholders working on the issue.

AACCSA has the main objective of “encouraging the business ventures that contribute to a large   employment base and exports”.  This is explicitly spelled out in its strategic paper (SP).

The main focus of the certification support service will, therefore, be to those Medium and Small Enterprises (MSE) mainly engaged in the export market and or having an import substitution effect.  Companies to be assisted will be selected on a pre-determined criteria established;  taking factors such as the companies’ readiness towards implementing the system; management’s commitment towards implementing the system; the companies’ relative value addition ; the national benefit in terms of foreign currency earnings and its contribution to employment etc.

The project will be implemented with financial support by the Ethiopian Competitiveness Facility (ECF) of US 220,000. Ato Teshome Beyene, secretary general of AACCSA, has signed the Client Letter of Agreement (CLA) with the Private Sector Development Capacity Building Sub-Committee (PSD- CBSC) that operates under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.