African Organization for Standardization’s
(ARSO) President’s Forum slated for Abuja next month will remove the
restrictions placed by the differences in the standards governing trade among
African countries, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Dr
Joseph Ikem Odumodu, who is the Director-General of the Standards Organization
of Nigeria (SON) and president of the African Organization for Standardization
(ARSO), while speaking to newsmen in his office in Abuja recently, stated that the
theme of the seminar is “the Role of Standards in Promoting Sustainable
Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.”
Speaking
further, NaijaAgroNet learnt, “Every
organism prospers by utilizing the material which every part supplies. But
hardly does Africa draw strength from the trade the different countries in the
continent engage in because, separated by standards, the countries hardly trade
among themselves. Now, ARSO President’s Forum Abuja 2015 is bringing fifty-five
heads of national standards bodies (NSB) in Africa together to open the gates
of harmonization of standards and let goods and services flow smoothly across
the continent”.
Dr. Odumodu elucidated further that the forum will
feature African Day of Standardization seminar in addition to the CEOs
Roundtable and the Made in Africa Expo.
Participants expected at the forum include manufacturers, service providers, medium and small scale enterprises, investors and representatives of government ministries, departments and agencies. The International Conference Centre, Abuja is the venue of the Forum.
The
ARSO President’s Forum, NaijaAgroNet
reports, is the aftermath of the 20th ARSO General Assembly endorsement of a
proposal for the ARSO President to convene a special forum of NSB chief
executives and engage them on ARSO standardization programmes to make Africa
one market. The ARSO 20th Assembly took place in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2014.
Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE
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