Marcel Gbaguidi  
Resident Representative – Director General
SOAC WAAS

Africa accounted for 2% of global services exports and 3% of global services imports in 2017 (UNCTAD). The services sector in Africa recorded an encouraging growth rate of 4.6%, positioning itself less than one point behind developed countries with 5.4%. Similarly, the services sector represented 47% of GDP in Africa, exceeding the contribution of the agriculture and industry sectors. The services sector employed nearly 38% of the workforce in Africa[1]. These figures prove that it is crucial to focus on the development of the services sector.

With its 24 million inhabitants, and an annual GDP growth of more than 7% over the last 5 years, Côte d’Ivoire remains the economic leader of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and represents approximately 40% of the Union’s GDP. According to World Bank data, its GDP, estimated at USD 40.389 billion in 2017, showed an average growth of 6.5% between 2021 and 2023 (World Bank). After having long relied on the export of agricultural products, its economy is now driven by service activities (47%) and its industry (25%)[2].

How to bring value to the activities of the service sector? One of the levers of action accepted worldwide is that of quality. Beyond quality, it is the question of Quality Infrastructure that is at stake, in particular the necessary existence of the four pillars of this specialized field that are the services of accreditation, conformity assessment, calibration and standardization.

In Côte d’Ivoire, significant progress has been noted in terms of quality infrastructure, particularly in the area of accreditation. Accreditation has long been one of the weak links in the Ivorian quality infrastructure. Based on this observation, the region, through UEMOA, decided to resolve this problem in the long term by setting up a regional accreditation body covering the needs of its eight member states. This is how the West African Accreditation System (SOAC WAAS) was created in 2005. While it is accepted that the creation of added value in services requires demonstrating that they are “of quality”, it is noted that before the creation of SOAC WAAS, the UEMOA Zone, particularly Côte d’Ivoire, did not have a favorable environment to set up credible service certification and labeling systems.

Today, the existence of SOAC WAAS allows the creation of labels in areas such as tourism or hospitality, by mobilizing certifiers who will have proven their competence through accreditation. The same opportunity is valid for the digital economy, IT security, transport, etc.

SOAC has given credibility to its accreditation certificates by signing the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) of the African Accreditation Cooperation (AFRAC) on April 25, 2022. On May 14, 2022, SOAC became a signatory of the ILAC MRA, and on December 6, 2023 it became an IAF Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) signatory. Thus, the certificates issued by SOAC WAAS for the benefit of laboratories and in the field of services and management systems are recognized worldwide, particularly for quality management and food safety management. The Ivorian legislator, in parallel, has made SOAC WAAS accreditation mandatory since 2013.

All these advances allow us to affirm that Côte d’Ivoire now has a framework conducive to national, regional and international recognition of the conformity of Ivorian services. It is now a question of adopting the various programs and projects that will make it possible to create or implement certification and labeling schemes adapted to each service industry.

[1] https://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/public_forum19_e/pf19_68_rpt_e.pdf

[2] https://afrique.pwc.com/fr/qui-sommes-nous/pages-des-pays/cote-d-ivoire.html