By Mohamed Bah
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), through funding from the European Union on the 24 February 2020 started a 2-day training on ISO 9001:2015 for the technical staff of the Sierra Leone Standards Bureau (SLSB) and the Private Sector.
Theme for the training is “Implementing Sustainable Quality Management Systems Using the ISO 9000 Family of Standards.”
Executive Director of SLSB, Professor Thomas Yormah, in his welcome address described his organization as the country’s only Standards Body.
“The SLSB protects human health, the environment, the economy and also ensures that there is fairness in trade,” he said.
Professor Yormah emphasized that producing goods that would meet internationally acceptable standards would require the disciplined adherence to standards operating procedure along the value chain.
“Unfortunately the critical importance of quality to all aspects of life is yet to be practiced in our society. It is our business to maintain a national quality culture in Sierra Leone. We are going to roll out this training to you, the universities and possibly to schools,” he assured.
An international expert in Quality Management and Conformity Assessment, Nigel Croft, who doubles as a facilitator, said that the training would build the skills of participants in ISO 9001, thus enabling them to recognize “what is important for them in a business perspective”.
“It is a tool that organizations can use to help them to be more efficient in doing business and for employees of SLSB. It will help them know about quality management systems applications,” he said.
The training, which is phase II of the UNIDO-EU funded project, ended on Tuesday, February 25.
