Accra, Oct. 3, GNA - Madam Leticia Osafo-Addo, an Industrialist, on Tuesday suggested that Ghana Standards Board (GSB) could think of charging testing and certification fees for groups of products rather than individual products in the same group.

Madam Osafo-Addo, who is also the Second Vice President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), said testing and certification fees for all different types of spreads like juices, flavours, spreads, jams and marmalades could attract one and the same fees. She made the suggestion in Accra at a seminar organized jointly by the GSB and the AGI as part of this year's celebration of World Standards Day, which falls on Friday, October 13.

She said the GSB must be adequately resourced to undertake its monitoring and factory visitation activities to cut down on the time they needed for visits when applications for certification were submitted.

"We should remember that SMEs make up 80 per cent of industries in Ghana, and if we are to succeed in our quest of achieving a middle income status, reducing poverty and making the private sector the engine of growth, then it behoves us as a nation to support the SMEs," Madam Osafo-Addo said.

Mr Adu Darkwa, Chief Executive of the GSB, said the relationship between the GSB and small and medium scale industries was critical for the nation's growth, sustainable development and international trade. He said it was pivotal that the needs of businesses were reflected in new standards that would benefit them and that business saw the economic, social and environmental benefits of using standards. Mr Darkwa said the successes of standardization depended on stakeholders and critical support was needed in the form of funding, recognition and commitment in terms of resources and expertise.

Mr Owusu Gyamera, Head of Standards Department of the GSB, said businesses could use established standards to reduce the time, efforts and money they had to invest in research and development of new products, yet increase their likelihood of success in the marketplace. He said although businesses were not legally obliged to introduce standards, compliance with standards was a convenient way of ensuring that a business met its regulatory obligations.