Gov’t to establish national body for assessing UNBS, Medical Laboratories.

By Ben Musanje

23^rd February 2021

Government is waiting for President Yoweri Museveni to ascent to the recently passed Accreditation for Conformity Assessment Bill in order to establish the National Accreditation Body (NAB) that is to assess laboratory bodies and organizations for their competence in performing conformity assessment services.

On February 10 this year, Parliament passed the Accreditation for Conformity Assessment Bill 2018, which will address accreditation for conformity assessment matters after having identified gaps in the existing laws in the Country by government.

The bill establishes the National Accreditation Body (NAB) that is responsible for giving formal recognition to inspection and certification bodies like the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Directorate of Government Analytical Laboratories, Medical Laboratories and Chemiphar (U) Ltd among others to ensure they are competent to carry out specific tasks.

Ameria Kyambadde, the Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperative says these inspection and certification bodies and analytical laboratories will be assessed after every two years by NAB and this will reduce at least 40 to50 percent of the Shs40 million governments has been spending on hiring experts from South Africa for conformity assessment.