First Ethiopian construction companies get ISO 9001:2000 certificates
It was a very special evening for the awarded companies, their proud managers, and for the Ethiopian Minister of Capacity Building, His Excellency Ato Tefera Waluwa. For the first time ever, Ethiopian companies from the construction sector received ISO 9001:2000 certificates, a seal of approval for excellent quality management. During the ceremony on March 6th 2008 in the Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa, H.E. Ato Tefera Waluwa expressed his satisfaction with this achievement: “This new quality management system will help our companies to offer high quality products and services. International certificates are an important step towards international competitiveness.”
The event was organized by ecbp in cooperation with the University Capacity Building Program (UCBP), a program funded by the Ethiopian government and run by the German development agency GTZ International Services that is building 13 universities in Ethiopia. Both programs have similar aims in the field of quality management and, from the very beginning, worked together closely on this project.
ecbp is supporting companies from various sectors in implementing ISO 9001:2000 and – together with the Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia – is creating a national certification body that will be accredited to issue internationally recognized certificates according to ISO 9001:2000 by the end of 2008. Since this body does not exist yet, ecbp engaged the German certification company ZDH Zert so that the construction companies could get their certificates now.
Eight companies, all are partners of UCBP, received their certificates this evening. For the previous 18 months, UCBP has been working hard with its partners to apply ISO 9001:2000 standards, helping them in every step of implementation, including training experts to control the progress made. Five more UCBP partner companies will probably receive their certificate in March; twelve will be evaluated by ZDH Zert in July. This is a huge success for Ethiopian companies – before, only ten companies, and none from the construction sector, had received ISO 9001:2000 certificates.
Reinhard Buchholz, lead auditor from ZDH Zert, emphasized the company’s great performance: “The level of implementation and usage is absolutely in accordance with the European standard”, he said during the ceremony. “In some instances, the understanding and application of the management system in the Ethiopian companies even exceeded the German experiences.”
ISO 9001:2000 is the world’s most important quality management system. Companies are encouraged to verify that the management works effectively by documenting work processes, formulating aims and checking whether these aims were achieved or not. “ISO 9001:2000 helps the companies to improve their management and organize work more effectively”, explained Martin Hansen, Director UCBP. “The aim is to lower costs, work faster, reduce wastage and improve the quality of the products.”
Since the ISO 9001:2000 certificate shows that the company takes a systematic approach to quality management, it is seen by many clients as a proof that they will receive products or services that satisfy their expectations. As Erik Ruh, Manager of ecbp’s Quality Infrastructure Component, pointed out: “Many international clients expect companies to meet ISO 9001:2000 requirements. Therefore, the certificate increases the export opportunities of companies that apply the practices.”