The Gambia faces challenges in ensuring standards

.... Food for exports are testing in other countries before exported due to lack of testing machines locally

Papa Secka Director General of The Gambia Standard Bureau (GSB) has unveiled that The Gambia lacks food testing machines, as a result of which the locally produced food are tested in other countries, such as Senegal before exported to international markets. He however added that efforts are underway to have a testing machine in The Gambia

Mr Secka said The Gambia is facing lot of challenges, noting The Gambia’s main cash crop groundnut yield has been declining over the past years due to the unfavourable process it goes through. He said there is need for the Bureau to harness challenges on groundnut, promote and make the sector more efficient, which remains a challenge.

Mr Secka was  speaking at the opening ceremony of the information sharing session on the role of the Bureau and National Quality Infrastructure with the National Assembly Members held at the Senegambia Beach Hotel on 31October 2019. The session is part of commemoration of World Standards Day 2019.

He said their objectives are to identify the challenges faced, with a view to know and address challenges by harnessing the role of the Bureau.

He described the inadequate sensetisation as undermining factor. Adding that the purpose of the session was to share with National Assembly Members about the role of the Bureau, work done and identify areas to contribute to national development. He added that the session is also meant to provide information to NAMs to enable them share with their people at their various constituencies.

He said the Bureau was established by an act of parliament by the National Assembly Members in 2010, while emphasing the need to dissemination information about the Act to the public.

He noted the GSB has been sensitising the public through capacity building, training, among others.

Hon. Kebba Secka Majority Leader  reiterated that the GSB was established in 2010 to take care of health of the Nation.

Hon. Secka welcome the idea of disseminating information through NAMS. He however said the major concern is aflatoxin (a disease cause by groundnut infections which cause lung cancer). He therefore urged the need for the bureau to collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture with a view to tackle such diseases, by enhancing standards.

 He described the workshop as timely, noting the importance of sensetising the public on standard adaptations, describing the session as the beginning of their collaboration with bureau, and assured them of their support to enhance standards.

Hassoum Gaye, a representative from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Employment expressed the needs for our standards to be internationally recognised. Adding that there is need to ensure our products are in line with international standards.

He among other assured his ministry’s resolve to continue supporting the Gambia Standards Bureau.

Mr Gaye further said our agriculture sector needs to compete at international level by adopting to globally accepted standards.

He said The Gambia is working to have food safety testing standards, adding that currently we are taking our food products to other countries for testing before they are exported .

Presentations on Standardisation, conformity assessment, and metrology were done by Mr Amadou G. Jallow,  Awa Jeng and Mr Papa Secka all staff of the Standards Bureau.

Lack of resources, training, and food testing machine, etc where noted challenges.

Mr Sambujang Drammeh – Marketing and communication Officer at the Standard Bureau Chaired the opening ceremony.

Global drives to enhance standards dated back to 20 May 1875 by 17 States, with the establishment of BIPM- Bureau International des Poids et Mesures set up by the Metre Convention. It maintains scientific laboratories in areas of mass, time, electricity, ionising, radiation and chemistry.

Functions of BIPM includes establish fundamental standards and scales for the measurement of the principal physical quantities and maintain the international phototypes

“The Gambia Standards Bureau continues to embrace good  practices to help in the execution of its mandate on National and International Standardization. The Bureau is aware that standards serve as strong tools to help drive the development of the economy of the country and all sectors require standards to help ensure quality delivery of goods and services across the length and breadth of The Gambia.

“The elements and structures to help drive the national standardisation process which is a fundamental pillar of the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) have largely been put in place and currently the Bureau has through its active technical committees published 100 national standards in key sectors of the country. The Bureau continues to participate actively in international and regional standards development. In order to strengthen the gains made in standardisation, the Bureau has decided to work closely with all relevant stakeholders to put in place a National Standardisation Strategy (NSS). This Strategy will inform the development of a national standardisation plan for 2018 to 2020. The Plan consists of the required standards to be developed in the three years.

"This NSS was developed following the International Organisation for Standardisation recommended procedure. The process involves rigorous stakeholder consultations at all stages. Therefore, this strategy clearly shows stakeholders standardisation needs in the next 3 years. The document will help the Bureau to judiciously use the meagre resources it has to develop the real standardisation needs of the country. The strategy will also help the Bureau to clearly show the need for more resources to help realise the standards required by the country during the period under review,"DG Secka stated in a Newsletter published by the Bureau.