Accra, March 20, GNA – Ghana’s International Electro-Technical Commission National Committee has held its Annual General Meeting and Conference in Accra, bringing together stakeholders from different institutions to deliberate on its work of developing standards and impact on the country.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, in an address on his behalf, underscored the important role of the Electro-technical Committee in developing standards to ensure the country’s socio-economic development.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Okyere Barfi, represented the Minister of Trade and Industry.
He said the issue of standards was even more critical now in the face of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which provided a huge market of more than 1.3 billion people for the benefit of the country.
He said adherence to standards would allow Ghana to benefit tremendously from exports to neighbouring African countries to enhance economic growth and at the same time ensure that citizens were not short-changed with sub-standard goods.
The Minister commended the National Committee for its sterling performance and urged them to build on it.
Mr Danladi Bukari, the President of the IEC National Committee, said standards were critical as they allowed us to meet evolving trends in the industry and to ensure that the country maintained and met the demands of nations.
He said the committee has the expertise to develop new standards and it was necessary to bring stakeholders together at such a forum to take stock of what is happening and what their needs are to be able to begin work on new standards to benefit the country as a whole.
Again, standards also help us to create economic opportunities for our people all the week, I mean cutting across agriculture industry, service, what have you. So when we are able to get the right standards, what it means is that we are able to harmonise our weights at the continental level and also at the global level, to the extent that if you take a service or boost from Ghana, because it meets a certain standards, you are able to trade that service and goods in other jurisdictions, which is very good for economic development. So for the benefits of standards
The Deputy Coordinator of the Ghana Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) said the forum allowed the various stakeholders to go through some of the things the IEC National Committee had done and their impact on the nation.
He said standards played a key role in every facet of the economy, right from finance, through engineering as they were very critical in the country’s decisions.
“As we evolve in terms of economic development and social growth, there are changes that are happening and there’s a need for us to make sure that we have standards that allow us to streamline those changes so much that we can stay relevant within the committee of nations.
“So when we can get the right standards, what it means is that we can harmonise our weights at the continental level and also at the global level, to the extent that if you take a service or goods from Ghana because it meets certain standards, you can trade that service and goods in other jurisdictions, which is very good for economic development. So for the benefits of standards, I think the list is endless,” he said.
Ghana is an Associate Member of the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) and has enjoyed some benefits, including increased awareness and use of IEC International Standards, helped by removing technical trade barriers and also use of the IEC Conformity Assessment Systems.
GNA