Today, 27th December 2019, Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) has received the Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) CEO Award 2019. The Award was presented to Rwanda Management by TMEA Rwanda Country Director Ms. Patience Mutesi Gatera.

Mr Raymond MURENZI receives the RSB award
At the presentation of the award, Ms Mutesi noted that RSB was selected to be this year's Winner following its result-driven spirit which saw the testing costs reduced and more locally made products accessing the market. She added that RSB ensured funded projects' sustainability and performance at the highest. She recalled that, in this regard for example, TMEA supported accreditation of RSB laboratories and food safety certification schemes until 2016, and the partnering institution appreciated how RSB has ensured the accreditation is continued and sustained todate. This also goes hand in hand with continual capacity building of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through the Zamukana Ubuziranenge Program. Further, TMEA recognized the strong partnership between both institutions, and the good relationship with RSB has resulted into ownership of supported programmes, good collaboration with the Private Sector and other TMEA programs being implemented by Government and Private Sector institutions. 

Mr Raymond MURENZI, Director General of RSB enthused: “We are very grateful to the partnership with TMEA. This has been one of the most successful inter-institutional engagements you can dream of. Thanks to our good relations and collaboration, we have been able to gradually build the institutional capacity through human resource capacity development, upgrade of services and capacity building for our customers. We now see locally made products easily traded across the national borders, and our commitment is to ensure we remain on the same track.”

Since 2011, TMEA has been a key partner to RSB and its partnership played a major role in shaping and the future of standardization in Rwanda through capacity building of RSB and Private Sector , support to laboratory upgrade, accreditation of labs and services, etc. Some of the partnership results are: acquisition of High Technology laboratory equipment, capacity building of testing laboratories and accreditation thereof for Food Agriculture and Mycotoxin laboratory, Microbiology laboratory and Inorganic Chemistry laboratory. TMEA also supported establishment of Lab oratory Information Mgt System (LIMS) to ease inter-laboratory communication, information access and ensure improved customer service. Among other achievements are: support to develop RSB Strategic Plans (2013-2018; 2018-2023), capacity building for both RSB, Private Sector and local consultants in ISO 9001, ISO 22000 Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS) , Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Certification of RSB against ISO 9001-Quality Management System. Further, the partnership saw RSB food safety certification services of HACCP and FSMS acquire international accreditation; and TMEA supported development and implementation of RSB Communication Strategy, and many more interventions.