Executive Director (Sierra Leone Standards Bureau)

Sierra Leone has a wonderful heritage and history of many firsts in Africa. The country has experienced outstanding growth over the past decade making it one of the fastest growing economies all around the world. In your own words, what are the main comparative advantages of Sierra Leone within the Western Africa Region?

There are lots of comparative advantages. First, government is trying to improve on international competitiveness. Sierra Leone has a priority on agricultural food products and government want to see that we export these products and bring in further income for the country. This is where the diversification comes in and government is establishing new agencies that are in line to meet international requirement.  Sierra Leone has according to the agenda for prosperity the international competitiveness, so we established the Standards Bureau. It was established in 2000 by an Act of parliament, Act no2 of 1996 and the weight and measures activity that is the Act no5 of 2010. We are operating on two (2) Acts, one, the standard Act no2 of 1996 is to standardise commodities and products in Sierra Leone and the weight and measures Act no5 of 2010 is to regulate the weight and measures activities in the country. So we realise with the Standards Bureau, the government has established a national standard laboratory for food and non-food. We have a national standard laboratory for microbiology and chemical and out of this we are doing various parameters because we want to have an international recognition that the accreditation of this laboratories. We are doing tests on echolike, on salmonella, on estermon and other parameters but we want to increase this test we are doing, so we are adding listeral and vibrio because we want to fish and fishery products. We want to see the government of Sierra Leone export the fish and fishery products. Apart from that, most of the export that goes out of this country need to be tested locally because the demanding countries are asking for certain requirements. Spain for example is requesting that Sierra Leone export there agricultural product to Spain but they have requirements that Sierra Leone should meet before the product goes to Spain. So we need to have our local facilities to test these parameters so that they will meet these requirements before we export them to Spain. So we are now the local national standards body in Sierra Leone that is doing a conformity assessment tests on local food products as well as imported products to ensure that these products meet the national standard and to avoid counterfeit products. We have a lot of counterfeit products in terms of medicines and food products. Normally, food products do expires and they bring these products into Sierra Leone thinking the country is a dumping ground, so we are here to test the food products. For instance, the recent chicken brought into the country. It was substandard when we tested it so we had to dump the fish and fishery product. Also, we received a notification on the eggs from AU that most of the products imported from Holland and other countries have salmonella. So we are now testing the content of the egg and the shell of the egg to ensure that these things are free from salmonella. These are some of the things we do here for the food product. We have the chemical and the micro-biology that is why we have the HBSC and the AS to increase the numbers of parameters we do on food products. For the non-food product, we have the petrol. We test product on petrol, we want to see the quality of petroleum product coming into the country. We have had cases where we had to reject a whole consignment of petroleum product coming into the country because the sulphur content was high, so that made the management of Standards Bureau to buy a sulphuring oil analyser so that we will have the percentage of sulphur in the product. So for every product that we use, we will have to test it to ensure that they make the quality of the product. As for the non-food area, we have seen cases in Sierra Leone where houses collapsed because of poor quality of iron ore. The quality of the aggregate they use to build the house. Also, we have seen cases where houses are on fire due to poor electrical cables. Some of these electrical cables are sub-standard; we are supposed to have a laboratory wherein we can test these cables before accepting them into the country. The government is now trying to build the quality infrastructure. The quality infrastructure in Sierra Leone is fragmented, so now we are trying to re-engineer the quality infrastructure so that we will have the whole quality infrastructure and it comprise metrology, standardisation and conformity assessment systems. We are now serving as the centre and vocal point for the national quality infrastructure in Sierra Leone, which is why when you go to the ministry of trade they will tell you that before you export anything you have to go the Standards Bureau to see that they test the product before consumption. This is to protect the health and safety of the general public.

You have held national recognition and regional recognition at the Standard Bureau -how do you ensure trust?

To build trust you have to build equality infrastructure, when you build equality infrastructure you have all the facilities locally. So before ever they take product out you will have the facility to test and then ensure that these products meet the requirement of the demanding country. Within the ECOWAS, we are now harmonising the standards. We have this ECOWAS harmonising standard scheme that we are doing for sixteen (16) member countries including Mauritanian. So with these standards we normally meet at forums within ECOWAS, we look at the standards, let say standards for drinking water we harmonise this standard. The past years it was difficult for us to trade with the neighbouring countries.     Take for example Ghana and Ivory Coast, just a short distance yet the standards one country has for salt is different from the other, so you realise they cannot trade within themselves. The technical regulations also they have in Ivory Coast is different from the one in Ghana, so now what the ECOWAS is doing is harmonising the technical regulations and harmonising the standard for salt because the salt now suppose to be fortified. It should come up with the logo so that people will know that the salt has been tested and have all the ingredients that are supposed to be in that product. When the product goes out there will be confidence within the demanding countries, so we are harmonising those standards. We are also going by the ECOWAS quality policy that is now giving directives for us to have a quality directive. To facilitate inter-regional trade within Sierra Leone and Guinea, we have the Mano River Union and it comprise Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Now Ivory Coast is part of the Mano River Union, so now we can facilitate inter-regional trade within ourselves. Furthermore, we can facilitate international trade because within these countries, we are members to the International organisation for standardisation; we are also member to the Africa Regional Organisation for Standardisation and we are also a member to the International Organisation for Legal metrology. These are the international standard setting organisations that we are member; we also participate in international standard process. That is why we want to have the accreditation of the laboratories and before we go to the accreditation, we want to do our proficiency testing skill. Now we are writing talking to our sister’s standards organisation like Ghana, which is more advance than Sierra Leone, so we normally ask for the support of the Ghana standards authority to have their staffs from Ghana to take our laboratory staffs in foods and other product. So normally, they come here to do desktop training to our staffs. Also, we have the ECOWAS PTD metrology program; this is the ECOWAS mass comparism technical protocol, so they want us to use the same procedures, the same parameters to test. Our staffs will go to Ghana do tests there and come out with the results. The results will be compared to see whether they are compatible or there is a disparity. If there is a disparity, then that will advise you to have more pounce on staffs than other things. These are the proficiency testing skills that we want to involve. We also want to go to Ukase, the United Kingdom accreditation body. Again, we plan to discuss with the German PTD accreditation body for them to come and take our staffs, train them on the testing of food product before ever we go to accreditation. Accreditation is very expensive, now the initial cost for establishing accreditation is very costly because you have to call the international accreditation body to do inspections, audits and see whether you are meeting the requirement. We have support from the West African Quality Programme and on the 26th February this year, they sent us a conformity assessment expert to verify whether we should go for accreditation or not. The report is for the sixteen (16) member countries, so they place Sierra Leone Standards Bureau as the second batch for the accreditation. The 2016 first batch has already left for the accreditation; these are countries like Ghana, Nigeria etc. Sierra Leone being in the second batch for accreditation is expected by January 2017/2018 because it is a two (2) years process to have our full laboratory secures international recognition.

You seem to have established a Standard Bureau reference within the Region - How do you define yourself?

The French speaking countries are yet to establish their National Standards body. You go to Cape Verde; they are under the ministry of trade and industry. Liberia is yet to establish their National Standards body, Guinea as well. These are the three countries within the ECOWAS that are yet to establish a National Standards body. The Gambia has just established their own body; Ghana and Nigeria along some countries have established their National Standards body.  We are saying that when you establish your National Standard body, then you have the guarantee that whatever you have (Domestic Consumption) should meet the requirement. For example, the microorganisms, we cannot see them with our naked eyes. If they do not go through laboratories using culture laboratory techniques, you cannot know whether this culture is there or not. What Liberia has is a National Laboratory established by the West African Quality Programme that is also supporting the Standards Bureau in term of the laboratory. Now we correspond with each other through email, if a product wants to come to Sierra Leone, we will communicate with Liberia; we have this parameters have you tested it, this product is coming to Sierra Leone. They will say yes, this product is in Liberia and has been tested and is good for consumption. So we compare within member countries through emails.

How do you support investors who want to come and export products in Sierra Leone?

Sierra Leone is going through the free trade liberalisation scheme, so everyone is free to export and import products in Sierra Leone but these products are subjected to testing. You cannot bring products which we do not guarantee the quality of the product, maybe the product is at it expiring date. Normally, many people buy products that have just six (6) months to expire because the price is low. So we have to ensure that whatever comes into this country is being tested for it to be safe for human consumption.

What are you most proud of?

One thing I am proud of is the re-engineering of the quality of infrastructure. As I said earlier, Sierra Leone has quality infrastructure but it is in fragmented. It is in the Pharmacy Board, they do quality standards norms and quality pharmaceutical products. You go to the ministry of agriculture they are also talking about standards and quality of the agricultural products. Also, in the fisheries they talk about certification of export of fish. So now the government is thinking of bringing all of these things to a one-stop shop so that when they say quality the Standard Bureau is responsible and the certification of these products as well. The government is coming up with a quality policy for Sierra Leone; this is a policy directive that will build the capacity of Sierra Leone to export products whether internationally or regionally as well as the local consumption. This is because you cannot guarantee export without talking of domestic consumption, whatever they eat here should be the same quality you export. So that is one thing am proud of and the government supports us. Also, you see the infrastructure; the government has made it possible for Sierra Leoneans to have access to these buildings so we can have international forum because the infrastructure is there already. We are seeking support from the government for the equipment so that these substandard electrical cables coming into the country will stop. They will be subjected to test to see that quality products come into the country. We want to embark on building of the technical committees so that we take standards on mechanicals, electrical and all other infrastructure. When you have these standards, then you realise that the institutes of engineering will now go by the standards for any infrastructural development.

What message do you have for our readers?

I will tell the readers that Sierra Leone is safe, and the government is now putting infrastructure development. Also, the government is building the capacity of Sierra Leoneans to meet the regional and international obligations. So we encourage these investors to come support in diverse ways, whether in agriculture, fisheries, constructions, engineering or other aspects to build up the capacity of Sierra Leoneans. Furthermore, we encourage experts from outside especially the international standards setting body to build the capacity of the Sierra Leone Standard Bureau, so that we will be able to reach the accreditation for the foods laboratories as well as one of the parameters for the non-food area, the mass laboratory so that we will be able to test. Now if you export product without testing you will lose a certain percentage to the outside world and we do not want to lose that percentage. So we want to secure whatever we export to have value for money, we do not want them to deduct because of the calibrations of this instilment, so we want them to upgrade Sierra Leone Standards Bureau so that at least we will meet the regionally requirement as per the Ghana standard institutions, as per the standard organisation of Nigeria or one of the French speaking countries in order for us to facilitate inter-regional and international trade.