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16 - 22 Oct
UNIDOScope 2005 CONTENTS:
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First UEMOA Quality Awards presented in Ouagadougou |
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First UEMOA Quality Awards presented in Ouagadougou
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 30 September, 2005
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The Côte d'Ivoirian company AZITO has the honour of being the first recipient of the "Prix UEMOA de la qualite" - the UEMOA Quality Award. The 2005 award ceremony, planned as a biennial event, took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on UEMOA Special Quality Day, 30 September 2005. In addition to the grand prize, the UEMOA quality competition offers prizes for excellence in four categories: leadership; resource management; "process management"; and "client orientation". Prizes were given in all but the latter category.
In accepting the UEMOA Quality Award Grand Prize, general manager of AZITO, Jean-Luc Pereira, acknowledged that the victory of his company was also a victory for his country, Côte d'Ivoire. AZITO O & M (Societe d'exploitation et de maintenance de la central thermique d'Azito) has been operating since 1999, producing electrical energy from thermal energy. The "leadership" prize went to the beer and soft drink bottler, SEBEBRA, from Benin; the "resource management" prize to the Bank, BURKINA BAIL of Burkina Faso and the prize for "process management" went to EMICOR (Emilia Correia and Filhos LDA) of Guinea Bissau.
UEMOA, also known as the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), comprising eight member countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, is a constituency of 70 million people covering an area of 3.5 million sq. km.
In addition to the presentation of the "Prix UEMOA de la qualite", the Special Quality Day in Ouagadougou (view or download programme) highlighted the regional and national achievements of the EU - UNIDO - UEMOA Trade Capacity Building Programme, which has been running since September, 2001. Among the achievements profiled were: the operationalization of three UEMOA regional conformity assessment bodies and the establishment of the Standardization, Certification and Quality Promotion Secretariat (SCNCPQ); the lifting of the ban on shimp exports from Benin to the European Union (see UNIDOScope 24 - 30 April 2005); the development of a cotton standard for western and central Africa; the development of over 500 new standards for the UEMOA countries; a region-wide accessible datebase on the location and capacities of some 250 UEMOA laboratories, some 360 quality promotion and upgrading initiatives, and international regulations in the areas of laboratories, standards and quality. The databases also have information on 70 regional and national consumer protection organizations.
Speaking at UEMOA Special Quality Day, President of the UEMOA Commission, Soumaïla Cissé, emphasised the importance of the programme in improving the competitiveness of UEMOA countries and the better positioning of their products on the international market (view or download Cissé speech - French). The Chief of the European Commission Delegation in Burkina Faso, Ms Sari Suomalainen, UNIDO Deputy to the Director-General, Ms Hirose and the President of ILAC, the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation also spoke at the event. Ms. Suomalainen urged African companies to continuously to develop products and services whose quality is recognized at the international level (view or download Suomalainen speech - French). Ms Hirose enumerated the main achievements of the EU-UNIDO-UEMOA Trade Capacity Building Programme and assured stakeholders that "UNIDO remains available for future activities" (view or download Hirose speech - French or English).
The national quality award competitions in the eight UEMOA countries attracted a total of 240 applicants. At the national level, the quality competitions looked at: client orientation; leadership; involvement of personnel; and process management (with the sub categories of teamwork, data management and continuous improvement). The competitions had four grades of achievement, determined respectively by compliance with either, 9; 18; 27 or 30 paragraphs of the ISO 9000: 2000; ISO 9001: 2000 and ISO 9004: 2000 quality management systems. Only those achieving level four at the national level were elegible to compete for the grand prize, the "Prix UEMOA de la qualite". Each of the eight UEMOA member countries could nominate up to two companies as finalists for the grand prize. Fourteen companies participated in the final (Burkina Faso and Mali only nominated one company each). The jury was composed of a representative from the UEMOA Chamber of Commerce one from the UEMOA Commission and two from each of the eight member countries. The latter were chosen from the judges of the national quality competitions.
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The fourteen finalists were: from Benin: Hôpitalde la Mére et de l'enfant-lagune de Cotonou (Homel) and Société Béninoise de brasserie (Sobebra), Burkina Faso: Burkina Bail SA, Côte d'Ivoire: AZITO O & M (Societe d'exploitation et de maintenance de la central thermique d'Azito and SAGA-CI (Societe anonyme de gerance et d'armements); Guinee Bissau: EMICOR & FILHOS LDA (Emilia Correia & Filhos LDA) and GURPO BELINCA LDA (Societe de construction civile et travaux publics; Mali: Hotel Salam (SMPH); Niger: NIGERLAIT S.A. and Unilever Niger; Senegal: SCP NDIAYE & DIAGNE (Cabinet notarial Amadou Moustapha Ndiaye & Aïda Diawara Diagne, and SOSAGRIN (Societe Senegalaise Agroindustrielle; Togo: FAN MILK and SALT (Societe Aeroportuaire de Lome tokoin salt sem).
Beneficiaries of the EU-UEMOA-UNIDO Trade Capacity Building Programme such as SAP Olympic (Société Africaine de Pneumatiques); ATEP (Association des Transformateurs et des Exportateurs des Produits de la Pêche du Bénin - the Benin Fish Producers and Exporters Association) and the ACA (Association Cotonnière Africaine - African Cotton Association) spoke of their experiences. The latter testifying to the significance of the African Cotton Standard introduced under the programme.
In conjunction with the development of the cotton standard, by the end of 2005, UEMOA capacities in the field of classification and grading of cotton fibre will have been enhanced with the establishment of state of the art, High Volume Instrument (HVI) technology in four UEMOA countries. The HVI technology will be available to other countries for training purposes (all cotton tendered for delivery on futures contracts on the New York Cotton Exchange has to be classified using the HVI technology). The end of 2005 will also see the development and promotion of a special cotton label for UEMOA cotton in conjunction with other activities to enhance the market image and promotion of UEMOA cotton products in cooperation with the African Cotton Association.
Lamine Dhaoui, Tel: +43 1 26026 / 5183 E-mail: M.Dhaoui@unido.orgcoming events
Send your comments to the editor: K.Timmins@unido.org</fo