Quality standards: Catalysts for global competitiveness or handicap for small enterprises?

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OPINION

By Stephen Christian Kaheru

This year, Africa has been a venue of strategic engagements on the priority of standardisation. In June, the island of Zanzibar played host to the African Day of Standardisation as part of a week-long Standards Summit of the African Regional Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO).

During the forum, Uganda’s standards body, Uganda National Bureau of Standards, was voted to the ARSO Council and its Standards Management Committee. From 6 to 10 October, the 2025 annual meeting of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) convened in Kigali, Rwanda, under the theme “United for Impact,” inclining discussions towards how standards can address global challenges. On 14^th October, we marked World Standards Day as nations reflected on “Shared Vision for a Better World: Spotlight on Sustainable Development Goal 17.”

The drift of the topics for the various audiences aptly lends itself to the ubiquitous reality of product standards in today’s globalised world order. In an age where interconnectedness is increasingly redefining gainful exchange of goods and services, quality standards have become the highly sought-after foreign exchange for global commerce.

At over 90 percent of the continent’s commerce, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have buoyed Africa’s economic fortunes for decades through resilience and necessity. The African Development Bank forecasts regional economic growth of 4.3 percent in 2025 from 3.7 percent in 2024, with SMEs driving this rise. Africa is home to nine of the world’s fastest-blossoming economies, with the majority being catapulted by SME growth in the fintech, agritech and e-commerce sectors. In East Africa, following in the footprint of M-Pesa, Kenya’s startup ecosystem induced thousands of new digital SMEs in 2024, while Nigeria in West Africa saw a 12 percent leap in informal business inception.

Be it SMEs or established multinationals, whether they are eyeing domestic markets or are involved in export-oriented value chains, the dividends of standardisation are undeniable for any business.

To start with, competitive products stem from a foundation of uncompromising standards. Hence, by wrapping commodities in established benchmarks, SMEs raise their chances of gaining an edge over other market players.

AACE Foods, a small agro-processing business which produces spices and cereals from locally sourced inputs, stands out as Nigeria’s shining star in riding on quality to penetrate a competitive export market.

Upon embracing international quality benchmarks, including ISO 22000, AACE Foods made a mark on safety, quality and consistency. Consequently, the enterprise grew its local market share and made an entry into American and European markets, putting it at the forefront of the agro-processing business.

In a shared experience, after Brazil rolled out a targeted quality control and certification framework for agri-business and manufacturing, coffee and sugarcane SMEs emerged as viable suppliers for international markets.  

The other economic argument for standardisation is that by adopting quality specifications, SMEs build trust and generate loyalty, which tilts demand in favour of their products, inspiring business evolution.

With Africa growing as a market for Europe and China, quality standards cannot be more important now than in the past. As a budding enterprise in Nigeria’s hygiene and personal care sector, Wemy Industries rose to ISO standards to enhance the safety of its sanitary products.

This step handed the business a competitive card over multinationals, deepening customer confidence and winning it clients across West Africa.

Similarly, when India customised industry-specific standards for SMEs, the touchstones remained quality, safety and environmental sustainability, which their Zero Defect Zero Effect (ZED) initiative complemented. As a result, the ZED certification amplified the bargaining voice of SMEs at the international market stall on account of fulfilling global quality approvals. Besides, the Indian textile and manufacturing SMEs today bask in the economic glory of a widened market and bountiful profit margins on account of boosted product quality.

Given the prominence of SMEs in the trajectories of many economies, it is unquestionable that the local level impetus for growth and transformation in Africa will continue spreading from SMEs. Accordingly, in reinforcing the place of SMEs, we cannot ignore the role of local institutional incentives for standardisation among fledgling businesses. With most SMEs flourishing outside national capitals, decentralisation of testing and standardisation processes is imperative.

A few years ago, with support from Trade Mark East Africa, Uganda established three regional laboratories in Gulu, Mbale and Mbarara cities. This, coupled with a laboratory recognition scheme that has so far approved 20 private laboratories, has eased the reach to conformity assessment for startups.

Conceivably, SMEs are the torchbearers of domestic direct investment in African economies. When it comes to economic activity, they have demonstrated that true resilience lies beyond corporate grandeur and size. That being the case, if there are engines of transformation which Uganda and other African economies have to rev up now, it is these second and third-tier players in the different value chains.

Our public systems, therefore, owe them unqualified support so they can flourish and be more impactful. In this regard, local governments feature as dependable institutional kingpins in propelling the standardisation agenda at the grassroots. Their familiarity with the native conditions makes them ideal partners to hand-hold SMEs along the standardisation voyage to quality worthiness.

Like it or not, product standards are no longer a mere checklist for businesses. They are key holders of the opener to a quality-sensitive export gate for agricultural value chains and manufactured commodities. As such, adhering to quality standards is not a call to wine and dine; it is a blaring summons to global commercial astuteness.

How then can we deploy quality standards as a pivot of growth for SMEs instead of being barriers to the indigenous entrepreneurial boom? This is the cardinal question on which the judicious expertise of our policy minds must hinge, going forward. Until we roll up our sleeves to untangle the systemic challenges that sabotage the expansion of SMEs, the integration of African value chains into global markets will remain a pie in the sky.

The writer comments on national and regional development issues. skaheru@hotmail.com