Ghana has been commended for its effort at training Certified Trading Standard Inspectors towards the promotion of standards in the country.
According to the United Kingdom Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Ghana, Baroness Cathrine Hoey, the move was not only in the right direction, but also very important in guaranteeing confidence of people that they would receive value for their money when they traded with or in Ghana.
She was speaking yesterday at the ceremony in Accra to mark progress made so far by Ghana in using international standards to enhance trade opportunities as part of the global Standards Partnership (SP) programme.
It was organised by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) in collaboration with the British Standards Institution (BSI), the ceremony also recognised about 120 trading standards inspectors for successfully completing training through the programme.
The inspectors constituted the first cohort in the country to undertake the BSI training which aligned to the GSA’s evolved mandate of ensuring safe, fair and legally compliant marketplaces, while helping local businesses and protecting consumers.
Baroness Catherine Hoey expressed optimism that the initiative would impact Ghana’s global efforts to ensure standardisation, adding that “This will guarantee the confidence of people of getting value for their money wherever they patronise products and services.”
She acknowledged the efforts that had been made to ensure standardisation, and also recognised the support from various agencies and institutions involved in the project.
On his part, the BSI Team Leader of the Standards Partnership, Graham Holloway, expressed his happiness towards the milestone achieved with the introduction of TSIs in the country.
“This project wouldn’t have taken place without the financial and other support from the UK government, particularly the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) which administers the development budget,” he stated.
He said there was a lot of competition for the development budget but priority was given to areas with a high rate of success, adding that the TSI initiative is already promising.
Mr Holloway admonished the new inspectors to note that every counterfeit product they prevent from entering the markets saves the public money and health, among others.
The Director-General of Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Prof. Alex Dodoore, emphasised the point that the establishment of TSI would help expose counterfeit products and champion a culture of standardisation within the marketplace thereby boosting consumer confidence.
“This means that goods and services, factories, products, and other things in the country within the scope of inspection that we have trained the people will be expected to be of world-class quality,” he stated.
The primary focus of these inspectors was to crack down on counterfeit products, a menace that not only jeopardises consumer safety but also undermined the credibility of authentic businesses while distorting fair competition.
“We expect industry to work according to the best international practices. If all these things come together, the result is that Ghanaian companies will have a bigger share of the market, make more profit, and ultimately provide Ghanaian consumers quality goods and services at affordable prices,” he added.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
