Stakeholders stress the importance of accreditation to development

NINAS world Accreditation Day on June 9^th

The Nigeria National Accreditation Service (NiNAS) has emphasized the importance of accreditation to development as the world marks world Accreditation Day on June 9^th.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Service Mr. Celestine Okanya, said NiNAS is working to ensure safe workplace, safe products, safe food and transportation system for the betterment of Nigerians and the world at large.

Mr Okanya stated this at the official event to mark this year’s World Accreditation Day and the opening of the Nigeria National Accreditation Service office in Abuja.

He emphasized that NiNAS was committed to use accreditation to enhance safety, health and economic growth of Nigerians.

“NiNAS is using this medium to affirm our commitment on using accreditation as a tool to ensure safety, health, economic growth of our people while ensuring that our environment is protected,” he stated.

Mr. Okanya noted that the organization has within the last three months accredited assessments of fourteen laboratories all over the country

“Within the past three months NiNAS have successfully carried out accreditation assessments of fourteen laboratories nationwide, the first accreditation certificate was issued to a calibration lab located in Abuja here, the rest are still undergoing rigorous but rewarding process of accreditation and decision will be made on them as soon as it completed,” the Executive Officer explained.

EU on Quality Infrastructure
The representative of the European Union at the event, Nadia Cannata said compromising quality infrastructure by any institution can have a negative impact on business environment.

“Quality Infrastructure consists of a number of institutions and service providers that can only function properly as a whole. In the event of the incompetence or absence of any one of the elements of this infrastructure, the effectiveness of the whole system – and ultimately its efficiency – will be compromised and this would have a negative impact on the business environment,” she said.

Miss. Cannata noted that accreditation ensures that institutions responsible for the assessment and have the highest standards and integrity and competence to ensure quality and safety.

“Accreditation ensures that conformity assessment bodies have the highest standards of integrity, impartiality and competence. All this create an essential element that summarizes the key objective of
every quality infrastructure system which is creating “confidence” that what we eat, use, sell is of the highest quality”

UNIDO
The representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to ECOWAS and regional Director, Mr. Jean Bakole said that it was important for consumers all over the world to have confidence in what they consume and accreditation provides that.

“In Delivering a Safer World, it is critical that consumers have confidence in safety, security, and authenticity of food and water they consume.

“This confidence is gained through application of common food safety management systems, supported by credible testing and inspection regimes” he explained.

He stated that there are many organisations in Nigeria in charge of safety and regulations of food, water and cleanliness in the country but NiNAS was in charge of ensuring that these organizations are credible and reliable.

“Many organizations in Nigeria check compliance with food and water safety and cleanliness standards through testing, calibration, inspection services, and certification services”

“Accreditation Service from NiNAS is the complementary
tool that assures that these organizations are credible and reliable. NiNAS Accreditation service assesses the competence of bodies to determine compliance with standards”

Mr. Bakole added that accreditation helps to promote best industry practices, compliments government agencies to individually monitor conformity assessment organizations, and strengthen consumer confidence in products and services.

June 9^th of every year marks the World Accreditation Day as a global initiative, jointly established by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), to raise awareness on the importance of accreditation. This year’s theme focuses on how accreditation delivers a safer world.