Malawi President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has instructed the Ministry of Trade and Industry to implement reforms at the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) in order to revive economic productivity. Chakwera issues the instruction during the commissioning of the MBS offices and laboratory in Blantyre where he made the remarks at Kamuzu Upper Stadium ground.
Making his take, the President emphasized the importance of the MBS in reclaiming lost economic productivity. Chakwera highlighted the findings from previous labs conducted on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which emphasized the need to strengthen collaboration between the MBS and SME Development Institute (SMEDI). The reforms include making fees payable by SMEs more favorable and modifying the product certification system to accommodate small-scale processors and producers.
Chakwera also stressed the importance of fast-tracking information dissemination to SMEs and Cooperatives, enabling them to involve the MBS early in their production processes for better success in attaining certification. Another area of reform is speeding up the certification processes for SMEs.
The President expressed the need to crack down on the use of illegal weighing instruments by vendors in the market. He expects the newly established MBS Complex to address these issues promptly. Chakwera emphasized that in the digital age, no certificate should require physical visits to government offices, and the issuance of certificates should take no more than a few days.
“I, therefore, want the Minister of Trade and Industry to know that it is my expectation that this new MBS Complex will be instrumental in addressing these issues with speed. To put it bluntly, Minister, I want the complaints from the private sector players attending this Trade Fair about the slowness of the Government in issuing certificates to end, because in this digital age, no certificate should require a business to walk physically into any office and no certificate should take more than a few days to secure,” Said the Malawi leader.
