NiNAS
Nigerian National Accreditation System
Re-election of NiNAS DG as PAQI Chairperson
NiNAS’ Board and Management congratulate the Director General of Nigeria National Accreditation System (NiNAS): Celestine O. Okanya, on his re-election as the Chairperson of Pan African Quality Infrastructure (PAQI). This election took place at the just concluded PAQI Joint Committee Meeting held at Hilton Hotel Nairobi, Kenya, from February 24th to February 25th, 2022.
By this re-election, NiNAS’ DG will pilot the affairs of this continental body on Quality infrastructure till 2024. PAQI is a forum for Africa’s continental quality institutions for standardisation, accreditation, and metrology represented by ARSO & AFSEC, AFRAC, and AFRIMET respectively.
While thanking you for the selfless services to our continent, we wish you more success in this new tenure.
Workshop on ISO/IEC 17024:2012
NiNAS held a two-day training workshop on ISO/IEC 17024:2012 on the 11th and 12th of January, 2022 at Nigeria National Accreditation System, Logokoma Abuja. The training was organized for members of the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN) , National Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) and individual participants.
Interactive sessions were held during the training; participants shared the current processes adopted by ITPN, possible ways of improvement, challenges to expect during the implementation of the Standards, and how they could be solved.
NIGERIA NATIONAL ACCREDITATION SYSTEM, NINAS ACCREDITS FIRST NIGERIA’S PRIVATE INSPECTION AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM CERTIFICATION BODY.
The management of NiNAS is glad to announce that we have issued our first accreditation certificates in the field of management system certification to ISO/IEC 17021:2015 and Inspection body certification to ISO 17020:2012 respectively. The most exciting part of this news is that these Accredited Companies are fully 100% Nigerian Companies, leading the way for the private sector desired role in conformity assessment services in the Nigerian economy.
The Nigeria National Accreditation System (NiNAS) began work on the accreditation of certification bodies for management systems under the standard ISO/IEC 17021:2015 and inspection bodies under the standard ISO 17020:2012 respectively, since 2019. This journey began with a stakeholders meeting held in Port Harcourt in late 2019 to discuss with the industry players in Certification and Inspection on their needs, the market demand and the feasibility for these standards. There was an overwhelming demand for ISO/IEC 17021-1 and associated supplementary accreditation standards as well as ISO/IEC 17020:2012, competence requirements for inspection bodies.
With the stakeholders’ approval and expectation, we began work on our documents and management system to ensure proper accommodation of this new standard. We opened up to receive applications in mid-2020.
I signed the first Certificate of Accreditation on ISO/IEC 17020:2012 awarded to INSPECTION AND TESTS NIGERIA LIMITED based in Port Harcourt. We have also awarded Certificate of Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17021:2015 to SYSTEMS CERTIFICATION LIMITED, also based in Port Harcourt as our first accreditation Certificate for a Certification Body for Management System for ISO/IEC 17021-3 (Quality management system – ISO 9001), Occupational Health and Safety management system, ISO 45001:2018 (OHSMS) and to Environmental Management System, ISO 14001:2015 (EMS).
NiNAS is responding to the market needs as well as the Government policy directions and economic priorities. Recently the approval of the National Quality Policy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria requires all Conformity Assessment Bodies operating in Nigeria to get accredited to the relevant scope of their services before the end of 2025 . It is therefore important that NiNAS be ready to provide the accreditation service as required.
With these milestone, NiNAS has now accredited CABs under the following standards: ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/IEC 17021, ISO/IEC 17020, and ISO 15189. We are looking forward to accrediting again our first Certification Body for Persons. We have assessed a few institutions currently working hard to clear the non-conformities identified during the assessments. Our focus now is the completion of our preparations to begin our peer evaluation by the African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC). Achievement of mutual recognition arrangement MRA and Multilateral Recognition Arrangement, MLA is vital to Nigeria’s competiveness in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and the Global Market. NiNAS is committed to playing her part in this process.
This constant growth and expansion of NiNAS accreditation is made possible by the sacrifices of my team who are working under difficult conditions, yet remain committed to quality services to NiNAS. This is also an opportunity to thank our technical partners, World Bank Group for their investment of funds and technical expertise in NiNAS. We are appreciative of the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria in improving Nigeria’s quality infrastructure as evidenced by the approval of the National Quality Policy (NQP) by the Federal Executive Council FEC). We are looking forward to the constitution of the National Quality Council (NQC) and the commencement of the implementation of this very important National Policy.
Celestine Okanya
Director General
NiNAS ORGANISES ISO/IEC 17024:2012 TRAINING FOR NEMSA
NiNAS held a two-day training workshop on ISO/IEC 17024:2012 on the 15th and 16th of September, 2021 at Nigerian Army Resource Center, Asokoro, Abuja. The training was organized for members of the National Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA).
Interactive sessions were held during the training; participants shared the current processes adopted by NEMSA, possible ways of improvement, challenges to expect during the implementation of the Standards, and how they could be solved.
NiNAS issues its first ISO/IEC 17020:2012 accreditation certificate.
NiNAS issues its first accreditation certificate in ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 17020:2012. ISO/IEC 17020:2012 specifies requirements for the competence of bodies performing inspection and for the impartiality and consistency of their inspection activities. It applies to inspection bodies of type A, B or C, as defined in ISO/IEC 17020:2012, and it applies to any stage of inspection.
The certificate was issued to INSPECTION AND TESTS NIGERIA LIMITED.
ISO/IEC 17025 Training
NiNAS organized a training on ISO/IEC 17025:2017 in Port Harcourt from August 5th to 7th, 2021. The training was a general training and it was well attended by participants from the following organizations:
- National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC)
- Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQ)
- Biologix Support Services LTD
- Maralec Laboratories
- Infolink Laboratory Services Ltd
NINAS ORGANISES ISO/IEC 17025:2017 TRAINING
NiNAS held a three-days training workshop on ISO/IEC 17025:2017 from 16th to the 18th of July, 2021 at Lumiere Point Hotel, Ajao Estate, Lagos. It was an open training intended for organizations and individual participants with interest in the standard and quality in general.
The International Standard ISO/IEC 17025:2017: General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories prescribes the management and technical requirements needed by laboratories to demonstrate competence and generate quality results.
The training was well attended by representatives of these organizations:
- UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS
- BRISTOL SCIENTIFIC COY LTD
- ENVIRONQUEST NIG. LTD
- TETRAS ENVIRONMENTAL & SCIENTIFIC SERVICES
- NATIONAL VETERINARY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
- BELLS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
- INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ANALYSTS OF NIGERIA
- COMMODITY EXCHANGE
- AZMARINEBERG LTD
The training course consisted of lectures, group exercise and interactive session.
World Accreditation Day 2021 (WAD2021)
Today, 9th June 2021 marks the World Accreditation Day (WAD). WAD is a global initiative, jointly established by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC), to raise awareness on the importance of accreditation.
This year’s theme focuses on how Accreditation supports the implementation of the United Nation’s Sustainable development goals.
NiNAS marked the celebration by organizing a webinar for stakeholders and other interested parties. Participants were briefed on what Accreditation encompasses; the benefits, key players in the Accreditation system and the position and role of NiNAS as an Accreditation body. On WAD 2021, participants were given detailed insight into the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and how Accreditation directly and indirectly affects them, with case studies given to further drive home the points. At the end of the event, the ILAC IAF WAD 2021 videos on People, Planet and Prosperity were played.
The Speakers were Rosemary Okolo, Alhassan Joshua, Dr. Lawrena Okoro and the DG NiNAS Mr. Celestine Okanya.
WAD 2021 theme: Accreditation: Supporting the implementation of the SDGs
Training on ISO/IEC 17025:2017
The Nigeria National Accreditation System, NiNAS just successfully concluded a 3-day awareness and implementation training course on ISO/IEC 17025:2017 for laboratory staff/consultants in Abuja. The International Standard, ISO/IEC 17025:2017, General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories prescribes the management and technical requirements needed by laboratories to demonstrate competence and generate quality results.
The training course consisted of:
- Lectures
- Group exercise
- Interactive sessions
