As Nigeria joined the world to mark the 2020 Accreditation Day, (#WAD2020), the Nigeria National Accreditation System, (NiNAS) has called for an urgent implementation of Nigeria Quality Policy which will drive and enforce accreditation across the country.
The NiNAS Director General and Chief Executive, Mr. Celestine Okanya, in a statement on Wednesday said the theme of this year’s event, ‘’Accreditation: improving food safety,” although coined long before the ongoing pandemic, aptly captures the situation on ground.
He said as the world wads through this pandemic storm, this year’s World Accreditation Day provides opportunity for the world to review on-going food practices and steps that are exigent towards achieving food safety globally.
According to Okanya, COVID-19 has shown that food safety does not only have human health implications but could have a direct and adverse effect on both local and global economies.
He said NiNAS embraces this year’s theme with great optimism and believes that improving food safety should present a point of departure for more collaborations in making food processing attain acceptable standards in the public interest.
“The fact that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was initially found around people associated with seafood and the live animal market and the limited information about its transmission calls for learning and systemic change on how we perceive the role of accreditation services in general and specifically as accreditation relates to food safety.
“The sole aim of accreditation is to assure end users and regulators that a conformity assessment body (CAB), such as a certificate or inspection body, testing, calibration or medical laboratory, has the required technical competence and operates impartially. This competence is assessed by the accreditation bodies such as NiNAS against international standards and requirements.
