GHANA – West Africa Competitiveness Programme (WACOMP), Ghana, has backed nine quality experts who successfully passed the International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA) Certified ISO 22000 Lead Auditors exams.
By doing this, WACOMP aims to contribute, promote and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) and ensure that the targeted project value chains actors in Ghana, meet the requirements of the national and internationally recognized best practice.
The certified lead auditors will support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the fruits and cassava value chain to implement the needed Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and all compliance requirements.
The experts were selected from the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other private institutions. A brief graduation ceremony was held for the successful candidates at the WACOMP Project office in Labone.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Charles Kwame Sackey, Chief Technical Advisor of WACOMP – Ghana, stated that the support is part of WACOMP’s mandate to train a pool of national experts and build their competencies on topics/practices such as quality management, product quality, manufacturing, and food safety in Ghana.
“WACOMP Ghana continuously builds up the competency of experts in system audits and management system implementation since it is strategic for Ghana, European Union and UNIDO, as it ensures that the number of certified auditors increases in the country, which should, in turn, make businesses more competitive,” he said.
Mr. Fakhruddin Azizi, the UNIDO Representative to Ghana and Liberia congratulated the graduates and encouraged them to apply their skills as part of capacity building and to support Ghana in its industrialization drive.
Last year, WACOMP supported 10 experts to be IRCA ISO 9001:2015 lead auditor certified and also launched a resource pool quality training for 41 quality experts to increase the pool of national experts and enhance their knowledge on ISO 22 000, ISO 9001, and ISO 22 716.
The ISO 22000:2018 Lead Auditor course provides delegates with the knowledge and skills required to perform first, second and third-party audits of food safety management systems (FSMS) against ISO 22000, in accordance with ISO 19011, ISO 22003 and ISO 17021, as applicable.
Successful completion of this course meets the training requirement for certification as an Auditor on IRCA’s FSMS Scheme.
IRCA is awarded by the CQI, the professional body for experts in improving product, project and service quality. CQI has been in existence for over 100 years with about 18,000 members in 100 countries.
“We’re the only body that can award Chartered Quality Professional status. And our independence, global perspective and cross-sector outlook makes us trusted advisors to the UK and international Quality communities, industry and practitioners,” says CQI.
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