As the South African National Accreditation System (Sanas) hosts general assembly meetings of the African Accreditation Corporation (Afrac) this week, the organisations have reiterated their commitment to advancing intra-regional trade, health and safety, and environmental protection.

Sanas hosted more than 60 delegates from about 30 African countries for this year’s general assembly meetings.

Afrac remains mandated to provide African Union member States with accreditation infrastructure as a tool for facilitation of national, regional and international recognition and acceptable conformity assessment results, thereby facilitating trade.

In turn, Sanas, as the sole national body in South Africa responsible for carrying out accreditation across a diverse range of industries, plays a significant role in ensuring that its accredited conformity assessment bodies produce credible and accurate results.

These results should enable market access for African businesses who have potential to grow through participation in regional and international trade, as well as creating new opportunities for businesses across the African continent to access regional and international markets.

A well-oiled accreditation system is a catalyst to economic growth and hence Afrac aims to encourage and facilitate effective collaboration, cooperation and mutual assistance among members, as well as to achieve and maintain uniformity of accreditation activities in Africa and internationally, the organisation states. 

A highly reputable accreditation system not only yields more opportunities for African countries to trade with each other but allows African businesses to readily access international markets, Afrac adds.  

Sanas explains that effective bodies such as Afrac and Sanas provide quality assurance in sectors such as infrastructure development, mining, automotive, manufacturing, food safety, medical, agroprocessing, occupational health and safety, environmental sustainability and climate change.

Sanas acting CEO Farhad Osman says the general assembly meetings, which will conclude on September 20, are expected to unpack and address in detail the ways in which the continent can build technical capacity in assurance and create frameworks to assist member States in improving their assurance principles.

The general assembly meetings will conclude on September 20.