The 14th summit of the African Accreditation Cooperation opened Monday in Nairobi, Kenya with a key goal of making trade across Africa “borderless.”
The weeklong conference hosted by the Kenya Accreditation Service will bring together officials from across the continent to discuss ways to improve trade by reducing cross-border restrictions. Attendees will also examine the role accreditation plays in ensuring product and service quality and safety.
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“We need more cross-border businesses, so that if you do a factory in one country you are able to access a larger market within Africa for economic sense of growth,” said Juma Mukhwana, principal secretary for industry in Kenya’s Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, at the summit’s opening.
The ministry is aiming to increase exports from 10% of GDP to 30% by December 2025 and to raise manufacturing’s contribution to GDP from 7% currently to 15% by 2027 and 20% by 2030, Mukhwana said.
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Accreditation arrangements between African countries will offer governments “a reliable and technically sound foundation on which to build out and improve bilateral relations,” said Biwott Ng’eny, board chairman of the Kenya Accreditation Service.
The summit marks 13 years of cooperation by the African Accreditation Cooperation, which works to improve trade ties across the continent.
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