{"id":66109,"date":"2026-01-08T08:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards"},"modified":"2026-01-08T08:34:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:34:42","slug":"trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards","title":{"rendered":"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong> <\/span>The Ministry of Trade and Industry has reinstated the official launch of the 2026 National Quality Awards, scheduled for January 28.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a press conference held in Maseru on Wednesday, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Mokhethi Shelile, said the awards aim to encourage businesses to consistently deliver high-quality products and services.<\/p>\n<p>The awards are categorised into five sections, Product of the Year, Exporter of the Year, Service of the Year, Individual Contributor of the Year, and Company of the Year. The competition is open to all businesses, including small, medium, and large enterprises.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Shelile further noted that winners will go on to compete at the SADC level, where they stand to gain regional and international recognition.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Director of Standards, Mr. Molebetsi Rabolinyane, said the awards serve as a key tool for promoting quality standards in the country.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that while the initiative had been implemented in previous years, it was temporarily halted due to financial constraints and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Rabolinyane added that moving forward, the Ministry hopes the awards will have a meaningful impact on both businesses and consumers, ultimately improving service delivery nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Ends\/KP<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Lesotho<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has reinstated the official launch of the 2026 National Quality Awards, scheduled for January 28. Speaking at a press conference held in Maseru on Wednesday, Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Mokhethi Shelile, said the awards aim to encourage businesses to consistently deliver high-quality products and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":66108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-66109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Ministry of Trade and Indus ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Ministry of Trade and Indus ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-08T08:24:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-08T08:34:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-08T08:24:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-08T08:34:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards\"},\"wordCount\":212,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards\",\"name\":\"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-08T08:24:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-08T08:34:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"-article-header-tag\\\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Ministry of Trade and Indus ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":540,\"caption\":\"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards - Lesotho","description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Ministry of Trade and Indus ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards","og_description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Ministry of Trade and Indus ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-01-08T08:24:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-08T08:34:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards","datePublished":"2026-01-08T08:24:22+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-08T08:34:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards"},"wordCount":212,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg","keywords":["Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","economy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards","name":"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-08T08:24:22+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-08T08:34:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press - Lesotho. The Ministry of Trade and Indus ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2026\/01\/sm_1767861242.546623.jpg","width":720,"height":540,"caption":"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/trade-ministry-revives-national-quality-awards#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trade Ministry Revives National Quality Awards"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}