The winners of the SADC Quality Awards have been announced at the SADC TBT Stakeholder Committee meeting held in Gaborone Botswana. Two Zambian companies have received awards as 1st runners up in the service of the year and exporter of the year large enterprise categories.
Announcing the winners of the competition, SADC Quality Awards Judges led by Lucy M. Morowa from Zimbabwe announced NICO Insurance Limited as 1st runners up in the Service of the Year category while Dangote was announced as 1st runners up in the Exporter of the Year category.
The SADC Quality Awards celebrates the achievements of companies or organizations contributing to quality advancement by implementing quality systems, procedures, and processes in line with local, regional, and international best practices and using quality advancement to support national and regional economic development. To be eligible to participate at the SADC level, a company or individual must have won the award at the national level. The competition is one of the ways in which businesses are evaluated and measured against international best practices.
Speaking shortly after the announcement was made, ZABS Acting Executive Director Nathan Sing’ambwa said the recognition at SADC level is a deserving award for NICO Insurance and Dangote as this demonstrates the capacity of Zambian businesses to make a meaningful contribution within and beyond the region. He said Zambia takes pride in this achievement as it emphasizes the need to assist industry and provide standardization and quality assurance services for increased industry competitiveness and sustained quality culture. He said ZABS remains committed to improving and strengthening the organization of the National Quality Awards competition and to providing support to all participating organizations and individuals in order to increase the number of successful participants at both local and regional competitions. He encouraged producers, manufacturers, service providers both public and private to use the Zambia Annual Quality awards and the SADC Quality Awards competitions as a learning platform and a benchmarking tool to improve their products and services.
In an acceptance speech read on his behalf by Goodson Machela, NICO Insurance Limited Acting Chief Executive Officer Keith Mumba thanked the Bureau for the awareness work in promoting the quality awards and for bringing the realization of the need to benchmark services with other peers within the country and the region. He said NICO Insurance is delighted to have been recognized at the highest level within the SADC region. He said the company will endeavor to come out bigger and stronger as an organisation in 2023 and 2024.
Dangote Cement Chief Executive Officer Vipul Agrawal said it was a delight for his company to be recognized for a third time in this competition and said the company will continue to aim for more. He thanked the Ministry of Commerce Trade and Industry and the Zambia Bureau of Standards for the continued support to industry growth.
The 2023 SADC Quality Awards received 35 entries from member states with Zambia being recognized in two categories only out of the 7 participated in.
