Ghanaian businesses have been encouraged to undergo management systems certification to enable them to access the competitive international market.
Mrs Dzienyo Akafia, Head of Systems Certification of the Ghana Standards Authority, who made the call at the third AGM, said consumers all over the world were looking out for organisations with management systems, which assure consistently safe and quality products and services.
She said systems certification allowed businesses to document their processes and procedures, develop data, do reviews and traceability with time, identify where issues may arise and be able to fix them in the nick of time before new problems develop.
“Typically, as Ghanaians, we do not like to document what we do because we like to flow freely, but we need a situation where we can put down information, ” she said.
A standard will typically also expect the organisations to do internal audits that are checking the system, and it has to be done periodically.
“You want to know if you are going forward or you are going backwards, or at least you are where you started from. And the only way to do that is to check, to look at the records you have put in place, to be able to see that last month, this is what happened. This month, I have improved, or I am declining,” she said.
“If you don’t document, you are unable to identify where these problems are. And the only way an internal audit, for instance, will be effective is when you have documentation to be able to take you back several years,” Mrs Akafia added.
Touching on the benefits, Mrs Akafia said it would boost the confidence of clients that the organisations were situated in the world, they could deliver quality as per their needs.
“We have certain very big companies in Ghana that we have certified. And because of that, they don’t sell only on the local market. They can sell within the sub-region and export to the UK, and the US,” she said, adding that companies with similar products were unable to export to these markets because of the lack of management systems certification.
Professor Alex Dodoo, Director-General of Ghana Standards Authority, said the organisation was ready to support businesses to thrive.
He said having a standard way of doing things enhanced industrial efficiency, moved businesses forward and gave them recognition, adding that most companies in Ghana did not like documentation.
The Ghana Standards Authority has been implementing the Management Systems Certification Scheme, which has been accredited by DAkkS, a German accreditation body, for several years in the areas of quality, food safety and environmental management systems.
GNA