Shagamu in Ogun State gets Afreximbank’s first African Quality Assurance Centre in Nigeria
As part of its mission to establish top-notch quality assurance centers across Africa, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) inaugurated the first African Quality Assurance Centre (AQAC) in Shagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria.
In order to encourage exports and ease intra- and extra-African trade, the program seeks to ensure that Made-in-Africa products adhere to technical specifications and international standards.
The Ogun State AQAC is a cutting-edge facility with the ability to test and certify goods for both domestic and international use. The necessary testing services are provided by its laboratories and cutting-edge equipment, which also provide physical and chemical testing, contaminant analysis (for things like pesticides and heavy metals), microbiological testing, water analysis, soil analysis, plant analysis, and organic substrate analysis.
Additionally, the center provides inspection and training services that encompass the entire food and agricultural value chain in an effort to strengthen technical capacities and transmit know-how in the field of conformity assessment in Nigeria and West Africa.
Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, said the official commissioning ceremony of the Ogun State AQAC was an important milestone in the execution of the Bank’s industrialisation agenda.
We are overjoyed to see this significant project completed on time. We are thrilled to give Nigeria and Africa the first of these centers, which will quickly regain public trust in goods made in Africa. The Ogun State AQAC will assist Nigeria and its surrounding West and Central African nations in increasing their exports and gaining access to international and domestic markets. Additionally, it will aid in establishing high standards for product packaging and branding and draw funding for these spin-off operations. According to Prof. Oramah, these initiatives will raise living standards, produce jobs, and encourage export diversification.
With Bureau Veritas as a technical partner who will also be in charge of running the project to make sure the AQAC in Ogun State is effective, economically feasible, and sustainable, Afreximbank worked on the implementation of this top AQAC.
According to Marc Roussel, Senior Vice President of Bureau Veritas Africa, President of Government Services, I am really delighted to participate as a partner in this project on behalf of the Bureau Veritas Group and to be able to provide our unique technical skills and experience.
Food security and safety go hand in hand, so let’s start building trust in Africa by building trust in the rest of the world. This will not only spur economic development and wealth creation, but it will also change the paradigm so that “Made in Africa” is now synonymous with “100% of Quality,” according to Mr. Roussel.
In addition, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was represented by the Honourable Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, Minister of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, who said: Boosting export is the strategy that the federal government has designed to bridge the supply gap and generate earnings in the near future. We are now in a good position to further Nigeria’s industrialization program and increase job creation thanks to quality assurance.
The opening of the facility, according to H.E. Adedapo Abiodun, Executive Governor of Ogun State, is yet another significant illustration of Afreximbank’s commitment as a partner in Ogun State’s development strategy.
We genuinely feel honored to be a part of this success tale. Our goal is still to provide Ogun state with focused, high-quality administration and to foster a public-private sector collaboration, both of which are essential for the long-term economic growth and personal prosperity of Ogun residents. Gov. Abiodun remarked
On a 5-hectare parcel of land allotted to the project by the Ogun State, construction on the Ogun State AQAC started in February 2021. The plant is conveniently situated along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 65 kilometers from Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and main port city, and 75 kilometers from Ibadan, the region’s largest industrial and commercial centre.
Afreximbank has committed to investing over US$100 million through its fully owned subsidiary, Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), to construct additional AQACs in Nigeria and all across the continent in addition to the one in Ogun State.
