Quality Champions Going Strong in the EAC

Under MARKUP, the International TradeCentre (ITC) has trained over 90 Quality Champions (QC) in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania since 2019. The training has increased the pool of professional quality experts committed to training and coaching SMEs to address quality related challenges, and has gone away in building a quality culture in East Africa. To date, the QCs have so far coached more than 80 SMEs across different sectors.

In June and July 2021, the programme was rolled out in Burundi, where around 20 QCs will soon start to coach SMEs.

'I wanted to quit the export market because of financial losses, but now I have the confidence to grow in the export business,' said June Gathoni, director of Kenyan avocado exporter United Fresh Venture, an SME that received support from the programme.

Jean Claude Ndayambaje, QC and Secretary for the newly created Rwanda Alliance for Quality (RAQ) said, ‘Becoming a QC was a lifetime experience’. Thanks to the training, he obtained a promotion at his own job and gained visibility as a quality expert at the national and international level.

More information and profiles of all MARKUP Quality Champions are available on the EAC Quality Connect website. https://un-consulting.ch/eac/connect.