Management experts have tasked organisations in Africa to see standard and quality as key credentials to advance the continent’s quest to compete with the rest of the world.
They said this in Lagos during the 2023 African Quality Achievement Awards and African Quality Congress themed ‘Leveraging Quality to Develop Creative Solutions for the Future’.
The stakeholders believed that African companies must be ready to self-regulate themselves to be able to export quality African-made goods and services to Europe, America and Asian countries.
Speaking at the event, Stanley Timeyin Ohenhen, the chairman of the African Quality Congress stated that achieving sustainable quality management would require managers to see quality as “what the customer says it is, quality as our way of life (our culture), quality as the only option to managing globally local brands, and that quality and innovation are mutually dependent”.
According to him, “Quality requires continuous improvement because it should be implemented with a total system from the gate to the board. Quality as walking the Talk as well as doing the right things right at the right time, all the time, and getting others to do the same.”
Ohenhen further said that “This 2023 edition is designed with a bid to deepen the conversation around quality and standards, to celebrate leadership in quality management in Africa. It is aimed at identifying, recognizing and regarding companies and products that apply quality culture and quality management best practices in achieving their corporate objectives.”
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“This is the more auspicious at a time like this, that the African socio-political, economic and business terrain seem quite troubled by myriads of challenges including political crises, manipulations, ethnic and religious crisis, deepening poverty and corruption”.
He further stated that “The African continent is still indeed, a continent full of opportunities for businesses and budding entrepreneurship, regardless of the daunting environmental, political and socio-economic challenges.”
The keynote speaker, a certified business coach, Ernest Ovie Shaka believed that Africa should focus on their natural endowment rather than concerning itself with foreign inhibitions.
“It is about time we focus on our strength and pay less attention to what is happening in other continents. Africa is blessed and endowed with natural resources such as Sun, water, fertile soil and human ability. The focus should be more inward than outward. China, the US, the UK and other developed countries never focused on what is happening in other countries.”
Favour Esorougue, the executive director, of the World Quality Alliance believed organisations that have quality deficiency would not be able to compete globally, which means regulatory authorities in other countries would always stop such products from entering their markets.
“We are doing this to encourage manufacturers and service providers in Africa to imbibe the habit of quality and standard. We also recognise and honour those that have been exemplary in the course of promoting quality and standard.”Over 60 organisations were honoured at the 2023 African Quality Achievements Awards (AQAA).
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