Expectations are high that an increased number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will conform to standards and make inroads in international markets following a quality and standardisation training the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MSE) is offering to the sector.
This is in line with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the bureau signed with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Institute (Smedi) in 2020 and renewed last year.
It has transpired that since the launch of the initiative, 715 SMEs have been trained, out of which 214 have been certified by the standards body.
This came out Wednesday during a media interface at MBS headquarters in Blantyre.
MBS Deputy Director for Quality Assurance Demster Edward Kumvenji said SMEs are able to trade their products just because they have MBS certification because mostly when the consumers are patronising their products on the market, they look for the MBS quality mark.
“When consumers see the MBS quality mark, they have confidence that the products have undergone the required certification processes and have met the relevant requirements.
“Now in terms of the business operators, they have the overall mandate to implement all the requirements that are provided for in the standards through their quality control processes. These are internal arrangements that each and every business operator is supposed to put in place and make sure that they are adhering to that each and every time so that whenever they are raising a product, for example, they are raising a product that meets all the relevant requirements,” Kumvenji said.
