The Minister of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts, Achille BASSILEKIN III, granted an audience on Thursday 21 March 2019 in the MINPMEESA’s Meeting Room to a delegation from the for the Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Agency (APME) led by its General Manager, Jean Marie Louis BADGA. It was during the presentation of the certification of the SME Promotion Agency to the requirements of the ISO 900:2015 standard.
It should be noted that from 7 January to 25 February 2019, the SME Promotion Agency was mentored by a team of experts from IMV Afrique in order to implement the requirements of the ISO 9001 : 2015 standards on quality management system. This support was to lead to an audit of the Agency's certification to the ISO 9001 :2015 standards. The certification audit conducted by a German international certification firm called 3 CERT took place on Monday 25 February 2019. (website : www.3cert.de). This audit, which proved to be successful, enabled APME to obtain its first certificate of conformity to the ISO 9001 :2015 standards. To achieve this,
the APME had to constantly improve the quality of services provided to
users. In his speech, the minister congratulated the General Manager and his team for the certification, which reflects the reliability of the information transmitted and reassures users that the services provided to the Agency comply with international standards. As a support structure for SMEs, the Agency will be able to assist many companies with the quality approach and certification of their products under the TRANSFAGRI Programme.
In conclusion, the Minister stated that obtaining a certificate shows the Agency's compliance with the requirements of ISO 9001 :2015 and should also set an example for all SMEs in the quest to align their activities with international norms and standards. He also made a commitment to support the Agency so that it would continue to benefit from this merit, which remains above all a challenge to stay the course. This certification is valid until 2022.