KAMPALA, Uganda — The Uganda National Bureau of Standards and the Kenya Bureau of Standards signed an agreement Thursday to promote standards and consolidate cooperation between the two East African countries.
The memorandum of understanding aims to enhance trade, market access and industrial development through standards, conformity assessment, metrology and training.
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Eng. James Kasigwa, executive director of UNBS, and Esther Ngari, managing director of KEBS, signed the agreement.
The ceremony was graced by Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, president of Uganda, and William Ruto, president of Kenya, who provided a framework for strengthening scientific and technical cooperation in the areas of standards, conformity assessment, metrology and training.
The two standards agencies will cooperate and assist each other in the field of standardization at national and international levels. The East African Community member states also committed to ensuring harmonization of national standards with international standards.
The two countries agreed to exchange information and documents relating to standardization, rules and procedures for standards formulation. The cooperation further provides for benchmarking and exchange of information on issuance and renewal of standardization and quality marks, in addition to exchanging technical information on certification activities and information on certified products.
The parties also agreed to exchange information in relation to testing facilities available in their laboratories. This includes exchanging information on the mode of operations in their laboratories, procedures for laboratory tests, and the development of laboratories based on international criteria with the aim of allowing mutual recognition of test reports — acknowledging each other’s assessments or certifications as equivalent to their own.
In addition, the two standards bodies agreed to exchange information in relation to inspection facilities available to them. They will also benchmark and exchange their inspection procedures/protocols, exchange information on product risk assessments with a view to assisting development of automated risk profiling systems and mutually recognize each party’s notified quality mark issued based on harmonized EAC standards and those issued against national standards. This is for purposes of determining the compliance of goods in line with harmonized inspection procedures.
Cooperation in metrology in the form of joint research activities in metrology is also part of the MoU. Uganda and Kenya also agreed to organize training programs to develop the capacity of their experts. This will be through training each other’s personnel and quality practitioners in the field of standardization, metrology and conformity assessment on reciprocal basis and other areas of mutual interest, as may be appropriate.
The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) is a government agency responsible for promoting, promoting and enforcing of national standards in the protection of public health and safety, and the environment against harmful and sub-standard products; as well as promoting fair trade practices and competition.
