Not everyone sees “Made in Africa” as a quality stamp yet, for sure. But it could soon be the case. The Alliance for Product Quality is working on it.
Hang on a sec. The what alliance?
The Alliance for Product Quality, abbreviated to AfPQ, helps African companies get a better foothold in the international market. To create new export opportunities and promote trade with Europe, the AfPQ gets involved in improving the quality of African products, and at the same time increasing value creation on site. The Alliance is not tied to specific sectors. The idea is rather that African and European companies can approach the AfPQ and, together with development cooperation and quality infrastructure institutions, develop specific responses to challenges. This might mean, for example, continuous professional training for producers or the improvement of available quality assurance services. While this can create new jobs in African companies, European companies benefit from an extended supplier industry. The forging of a long-term supplier-customer relationship represents a win-win situation.
The AfPQ is implemented by the PTB and the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). It is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). More precisely speaking, through the BMZ Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation and the PTB‘s supraregional “Quality Infrastructure Fund”. In total, the two implementing organisations have €8,500,000 at their disposal, €4,500,000 of which is being injected by the PTB. The AfPQ’s partner nations are Ethiopia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia, as well as Egypt (prospectively).
Would you like to find out more about the Alliance for Product Quality? Check out our website!
Image © Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
