On March 17, 2022, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and EU-funded West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP) Ghana celebrated the certification of nine Ghanaian quality experts as IRCA Certified ISO 22000 Lead Auditors at a ceremony in the WACOMP Project office in Labone, Accra. “The support is part of WACOMP’s effort to… backstop and handhold MSMEs in Ghana to meet quality requirements,” per wacompghana.org, aiming to boost competitiveness and prevent export product recalls. The experts were selected from the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), and private institutions.
WACOMP’s Capacity-Building Mission
Charles Kwame Sackey, Chief Technical Advisor of WACOMP-Ghana, emphasized the program’s mandate to train national experts in quality management and food safety. “WACOMP Ghana continuously builds up the competency of experts… to make businesses more competitive,” Sackey stated, linking the initiative to Ghana’s One District, One Factory (1D1F) industrialization drive. The ISO 22000 standard, focused on food safety management, equips organizations to enhance performance and compliance, critical for Ghana’s export-driven MSMEs, per ISO.org.
Encouraging Application of Skills
UNIDO Representative to Ghana and Liberia, Fakhruddin Azizi, urged the graduates to apply their skills to support MSMEs. “Use the skills acquired… to support Ghana in her industrialization drive,” Azizi said, per wacompghana.org. The certification empowers auditors to conduct first, second, and third-party audits, ensuring food safety standards align with global benchmarks. This builds on WACOMP’s 2021 success, certifying 10 experts as IRCA ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditors, strengthening Ghana’s quality infrastructure.
Impact on Ghana’s Competitiveness
The initiative addresses Ghana’s need for certified auditors to support its 1.3 million MSMEs, which contribute 70% to GDP, per a 2022 Ghana Statistical Service report. “WACOMP Ghana will continue to build the capacity of local experts… to develop a ‘culture of quality,’” Sackey noted, aiming to reduce the 15% export rejection rate due to non-compliance, per GSA data. By 2022, WACOMP had trained over 50 experts across ISO standards, per UNIDO, enhancing Ghana’s trade competitiveness within ECOWAS and beyond.
Future Prospects
The certification aligns with WACOMP’s broader goal to integrate Ghana into regional and global markets, supporting ECOWAS’s trade framework. “This is strategic for Ghana, European Union, and UNIDO,” Sackey emphasized, per wacompghana.org. With food safety violations costing Ghana $100 million annually in trade losses, per a 2021 FDA report, the auditors’ role is critical. By late 2022, WACOMP planned further training to certify 20 more auditors, per @UNIDO_Ghana on X, bolstering Ghana’s industrialization and export quality under initiatives like AfCFTA.
