One might think that when the heads of national standards bodies, NSBs, gather, they would have time for only their type, but in the ARSO President’s Forum being hosted by Nigeria at the International Conference Centre, Abuja June 22 – 24, 2015, it will not be so and this is perhaps the largest gathering of NSB chiefs in Africa! Fifty-five of them will fly into Abuja at the countdown to the great convention. And to the company of hundreds of manufacturers and service providers some of whom are sponsors of the event or just exhibitors or seminar participants.

The African Organisation for Standardisation, ARSO, the African Union organ who are the  conveners of this Forum, ably assisted by the chief host NSB the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON have seen to it that the business community will buy into the event. First, they ensured the event is legitimately ARSO; the 20th ARSO General Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda June last year authorised the ARSO president who is the SON director general/chief executive, Dr Joseph Odumodu, to summon the Forum. Thereafter, Odumodu briefed the Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment on the task. The Minister networked with fellow ministers, setting up an inter-ministerial local organising committee comprising the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Security, and SON. SON is both chairman and secretariat of the committee. The involvement of the various MDAs in the committee indicates that the full commitment of Nigeria to the success of the event has been secured.

The Forum’s features include the ARSO CEOs Roundtable, the Made in Africa Expo and the African Standardisation Day seminar. At the Roundatable, the business people will join the standardisation chiefs to share their insights and challenges as standardisation stakeholders. According to the chief host, Dr Odumodu, the interaction with the 55 NSB chiefs gives each participating business owner an opportunity to build a beneficial relationship with them. “The NSB chief,” he explains, “is a very powerful figure in any country because he is responsible for the enumeration and implementation of standards in his country and that’s a large part of the trade and industrial complex of that country. An industrialist who gets such people to support his expansion into their countries would soon have Africa’s 1.1 billion consumers as his market. Rarely does a manufacturer or service provider get several NSB chiefs to listen to him in one place.”

Dr Paul Angya the chairman of the local organising committee agrees: “The coming of the business people to the conference table of the heads of NSBs in Africa widens the opportunity they have in this continent. A bigger market offers more profit to a manufacturer or professional than a small market. The market is people. The more people there are the more purchases can be made.”

The Seminar has as its theme: “The Role of Standards in Promoting Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security.” In this knowledge feast, participants will explore ways of maximizing Africa’s resources and competencies in activities where she has comparative advantage.

The Made in Africa Expo is meant for all products – the certified as well as the uncertified because SON wants all industrialists and medium and small scale enterprises, MSMEs, in Nigeria to show Africa what they have. Dr Odumodu says this has become necessary because “regulatory bureaucracies have probably scared some companies away from certification and it would take emphasizing the voluntariness of implementation of standards to make some of such companies to come near SON and learn the necessity of manufacturing by the standards.”

Participating MSMEs stand a chance of being selected as one of the ten to compete at the African Union Council of Ministers Made in Africa Fair to be held in Egypt later in the year. They also qualify to be considered for the free certification that will be given to the best ten exhibiting MSMEs.

Furthermore, the venue ambience and the convention’s big brochure provide advertising and brand projection opportunities for participants. In addition, participants could project their products and services in special presentations during the Roundtable. These are in addition to the general promotion of made in Nigeria products at the Forum.

Top government officials and diplomats as well as captains of industry are expected at the convention. A hundred and forty stakeholders and journalists attended the ARSO President’s Forum Media Launch which took place recently at the Oriental Hotel in Lekki, Lagos. During the event, the ARSO president explained that Africa’s economic emancipation and competitiveness requires uniting the continent as a single market through the harmonization of standards and conformity assessment procedures for the different countries. Thereafter, companies and organizations started signing up to sponsor the convention. Additionally, the local organizing committee secretariat has been awash with enquiries about the big three day event. Some companies have already paid for participation.

Historically, the expansion of markets and economic opportunity is led by the private sector while government just provides a secure and enabling environment. Now, governments in Africa through ARSO and SON are taking initiatives in that direction and the business people are only very eager to take advantage.

Chimeziri Franklin, a strategic communication professional, wrote from Lagos