Cabinet to set up new standards body
Mr Kasi at a past event. He believes the financial services industry is likely to witness partnerships that are similar to those of mobile telecom operators. PHOTO by Micheal Kakumirizi.
Efforts by government to ease doing business continue to take shape, this time Cabinet approving the national accreditation policy that will see a separate body from Uganda National Bureau of Standards established, the Minister of Trade Amelia Kyambadde has said.
According to Ms Kyambadde, currently the ISO standards marks, accepted internationally, used by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) are provided for by South Africa at a cost that is ultimately passed on to the end user during product certification.
“UNBS mandate will be just to ensure that goods are up to standard through monitoring and enforcement while the new body will be responsible to develop certification marks locally,” Ms Kyambadde said.
The minister made the revelation during swearing in of the Uganda Industrial Research Institute board last week. She added “The body once created will also reduce bureaucracies involved in product certification hence ease doing business”.
The 2014 World Bank Doing Business report indicated that failure to implement the required business reforms in the past year cost Uganda 12 places ranking 132nd out of 189 economies in the global business ranking.
The body is expected to take shape before the end of year.
