The Liberia Standard Authority (LiSA), a newly established semi autonomous government institution, recently convened a one-day roundtable engagement session with representatives of Liberian small enterprises and stakeholders, focusing on standardizing local products for international markets.
The event, held at the Ministerial Complex in Congo Town, brought together participants from various entities, including small businesses, the Standard Authority, the Liberia Business Association, and the Liberia Chamber of Commerce.
Key resolutions emerged from the meeting, such as advocating for the decentralization of LiSA’s activities to enable easier access to product testing for companies beyond Monrovia.
Other resolutions included raising awareness on product standardization and reducing fees for product testing. The event, under the theme “Roles, Function and Services of the Liberia Standard Authority Towards Private Sector Growth,” aimed to educate participants on LiSA’s role in supporting private sector development.
LiSA Director General, Stephen Mamba, in a brief remark, highlighted the importance of increased awareness among enterprises regarding LiSA’s mandate. The engagement sought to inform stakeholders about LiSA’s essential services and promote support for implementing the Liberia Standards Act.
LiSA emphasized the significance of aligning national products with international quality, safety, health, and environmental standards to boost economic growth and ensure consumer protection.
According to Mamba, most of the medium enterprises are appealing to the Liberian government to reduce the price charge for testing their products.
“The activity mainly focuses on creating awareness amongst members of the two major private sector groupings: Liberia Chambers of Commerce and Liberia Business Association,” he said.
He further stressed the need to create awareness on LiSA amongst stakeholders and harness adequate support for the implementation of the Liberia Standards Act along with its services for national development.”
According to Mamba, the aim of the engagement meeting with participants from the two major private sector bodies comprising the Chambers of Commerce and Liberia Business Association on its core mandate, roles, functions and services and to harness support for the implementation of the Service Delivery Chapter.
He added Liberia, like other West African nations, has realized that the significant key to economic development is ensuring its active participation in regional and global markets by producing products and services that must meet regulatory and market related quality, safety, health and environmental requirements.
He pointed out that LiSA recognized that this calls for a strong national quality infrastructure to support industry, trade, environment and consumer health and safety.
“It is imperative to put in place measures and institutional mechanisms to ensure that all goods and services for domestic and international markets meet required quality, environment, health and safety standards thereby strongly contributing to government’s sustainable development.”
The Liberia Standards Act establishes LiSA as the national standards body, responsible for standards provision and trade-related services, including conformity assessment and metrology. This legal framework is essential for developing a robust national quality infrastructure to meet Liberia’s economic objectives effectively.
