QSAE gets int’l calibration accreditation certificate

By Hiwote Derbew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- The Ethiopian Quality and Standard Authority (QSAE) has received an international accreditation certificate for its calibration laboratory in the field of mass and temperature in accordance with ISO 17025, from the German accreditation body for calibration laboratories DKD, which is the first of its kind in the country.

As part of the accreditation process five laboratory staff members also have been trained in Germany. To maintain the quality of the laboratory’s standard it will be re-assessed by the accreditation body regularly in order to confirm that the laboratory maintains the management system ,traceability and technical competence effectively.

Calibration is the process of periodically comparing equipment against a reference standard to determine how accurate it is and whether or not it is still capable of meeting the accuracy required for the measurement made with it.

Mr. Mesay Girma, QSAE general director said that the accreditation would contribute to the development of the industrial sectors in the country in terms of guaranteeing quality and standards of industrial products.
Stefan Wallerath, Project Coordinator - Technical Cooperation of Physikalisch-technische Bundesantalt(PTB), at the handing over of the certificate said that accreditation has a significant benefit to the Ethiopia’s industry, as well as for all testing laboratories on the country, being able to prove sound traceability to international measurement standards in the field of mass and temperature.

He stressed that the Ethiopian government has to maintain the accreditations certificate received by allocating sufficient budgeting for updating the traceabilty of national measurement standards through an international chain of traceability and through equipment acquisitions. Moreover efforts should be exerted to update the capacity of the laboratory’s personnel through training as well as creating an environment, which is attractive for core staff members to remain loyal to the institutions.
He said QSAE has a lot of reforms to undertake in order to be appreciated and recognized as an important service provider to Ethiopia’s industrial sector.

PTB is technical cooperation project which supports the setup of a customer-oriented quality infrastructure in Ethiopia within the Ethio-German Engineering Capacity Building Programme (ecbp) that commenced in 2006.