By Ndey Sowe
Baboucarr Ousmaila Joof, the Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment has continued his site visit to the National Quality Center of The Gambia which consists of laboratories that make up the center.
The lab consists of three laboratories namely; National Reference Food Testing, National Lighting Testing, and Metrology Laboratory (which include the mass, volume, and temperature laboratory) respectively. The lab according to officials will address the requirement in the area of testing in The Gambia for priority areas of the government, the private sector, and the overall protection of the health and safety of the Gambia.
Minister Joof said visiting the lab gave him exposure coming to the labs because he saw the significance of having standards across our livelihoods.
“Everything that we do as consumers requires that standards are set to enable the regulators to hold people to account because consumers need protection 24\7. Some people are playing games with our lives, some people are so greedy, and all that they are focusing on and pursuing is profits and they ignore the rights of the consumer to be given the truth about the products they are investing in or the services that they are buying,” he stressed.
He added that the lab will not only help consumers, but the government to also ensure that competence in exporting and ensure things going outside the country meet certain standards.
He said, “We are gradually building on what we have as a country from the basic requirements to advanced levels, and this is very assuring to me.”
He went on: “Here we set the standards to ensure what we export can also be commensurate with what happens in the global world so that our exports can be accepted, so this lab plays a key role in trade.”
He revealed that the lab will make it possible to even get more efficient in ensuring food that is not good enough to be traced.
“We provide them with a lot of support through coming up with some ideas, suggestions, and recommendations, but also representing them in government. All the challenges that the Standards Bureau faces require government intervention brought to my attention and within my capacity as a minister, I will deal with that,” he assured.
Papa Secka, the Director General of the Gambia Standards Bureau said the National Metrology Laboratory was the first laboratory to be established by the bureau and was established to re-link the Gambian measurement system to the international measurement system so that it once again recovers the validity of measurements inside the Gambia.
He revealed that the Metrology Lab consists of three laboratories namely; the mass, volume, and temperature laboratory respectively, and that the most active one is the mass laboratory because mass measurement and weights are the more common types of measurement within the Gambian society.
He added that the most recent lab at the center is the National Lighting Testing Laboratory. He revealed that the laboratory was inaugurated in May of this year and it has state-of-the-art equipment for the measurement of all types of lightning productions ranging from those at industry, aviation, commercial, facilities, domestic homes as well as sporting and entertainment areas.
“All kinds of lighting products could now be tested in this laboratory,” he revealed.
Moreover, he said the idea of the lab is to be used as a means of sensitizing the public, stakeholders, government, private sector on the value of the lab, what it can do for them and what relevance it has, and how it could be of use to the public in terms of safety and decision making in getting to understand how to make proper choices in terms of good quality lighting products.
He also explained that the National Reference Food Testing Laboratory will soon be operational. The lab’s scope is to perform most of the priority tests required by the food processors, manufacturers, importers, and exporters of The Gambia’s food products and to investigate the state of halal status of the food products.
