OVER 5,000 people from three regions of Kigoma, Tabora and Dodoma have equipped on identifying and using quality goods bearing the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) quality standard mark.
The TBS Marketing Officer, Rhoda Mayugu said in Dodoma over the weekend that the awareness creation campaign is aimed at increasing usage of high goods and discourage substandard goods in the local market.
She mentioned students in these regions as the largest group that benefitted from the campaign.
Others are entrepreneurs and common people in markets and auction places. Ms Mayugu said entrepreneurs in the three regions were equipped with knowledge and skills on how to verify their products in order to penetrate the wider market.
She said entrepreneurs admitted lacking knowledge on where to go and start the process of acquiring the standard mark.
“Entrepreneurs are encouraged to use the opportunity given by the government to acquire quality standard mark that will help them penetrate both regional and global markets.”
She said for an entrepreneur to obtain the quality standard mark has to bring an introductory letter from the Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO) and from there TBS certification process starts immediately.
She said the campaign also focused on empowering and creating awareness to entrepreneurs and other groups of people on TBS functions and new obligations transferred from former Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA).
TBS has encouraged entrepreneurs to take advantage of the government’s free products certification services to boost their value that would ultimately penetrate wider market.
“Some of the opportunities offered by the TBS is to verify products quality freely for three years, thus giving entrepreneurs chance to penetrate regional and global market,” she added.
On their part, entrepreneurs and other people commended the TBS initiative of reaching them their places and training them on how to acquire quality standard mark as well as resolving various challenges concerning quality marks.
