Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei has pledged to use his experience in Kenya’s public service to strengthen the push for harmonised standards and easier trade across Africa after taking up his new role as Goodwill Ambassador of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO).
Koskei, who accepted the appointment during the 32nd ARSO General Assembly in Mombasa, said he would focus on getting governments to treat standardisation as an essential component of economic transformation rather than a purely technical function.
He said his three decades in public service had shaped his view that institutions should ultimately be judged by the outcomes they deliver.
“I accept it not as an honour to be held, but as a duty to be carried out in the same spirit that has guided my three decades in the public service of the Republic of Kenya: that institutions exist to serve people, and that good governance is measured not by the policies we announce, but by the outcomes we deliver,” Koskei said.
His appointment comes at a time when African countries are seeking to remove regulatory and technical barriers that continue to make cross-border trade costly and complicated.
Koskei said he would use his position within Kenya's public service and his engagement with other African governments to push for the integration of standardisation and quality infrastructure into national economic transformation programmes.
“I will use my convening position within Kenya's public service and my engagement with counterparts across African Governments to champion the integration of standardisation and quality infrastructure into national economic transformation agendas,” he said.
He also committed to advancing ARSO’s “One Certificate” agenda by engaging senior government officials across the continent.
“I will lend my voice and my office to advancing the ‘One Certificate’ agenda that anchors this Assembly,” Koskei said.
The initiative seeks to promote mutual recognition of conformity assessments so that products tested and certified in one African country can be accepted in other markets without unnecessary duplication.
Koskei said the ambition was to have a continent where a product certified in one country could move into other African markets with minimal friction.
“A Continent where a product tested and certified in one African country is trusted, without friction, in fifty-three others,” he said.
He described standardisation as a critical part of the infrastructure needed to deliver the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“Quality infrastructure is not a cost centre. It is a growth engine,” Koskei said, noting that it influences the ability of farmers, manufacturers and exporters to compete within Africa and globally.
His new role follows deliberations at the 32nd ARSO General Assembly, which brought together participants from 58 countries from Africa and beyond.
Kenya Bureau of Standards Managing Director Esther Ngari said the meeting had reinforced the importance of standards in connecting African markets.
“One is that standards unite Africa,” Ngari said.
She said common standards would allow African products to move more easily between markets, giving the example of goods moving from Nairobi to Accra without undergoing another round of testing.
“Standards that will help us trade with each other and increase intra African trade. Standards that will help products move from Nairobi to Accra without having to be tested again,” she said.
Ngari said delegates had also agreed that standardisation must be viewed as a pathway to economic prosperity.
“The second thing that we have agreed upon is that standards drive prosperity,” she said.
She argued that Africa could create greater economic value by increasing production, value addition and trade within the continent.
The General Assembly also marked a historic development for ARSO, with the organisation now having a permanent home in Nairobi.
Ngari said the move fulfilled a commitment made by the Kenyan Government through an accord in 1981.
“The crowning for this week has been that ARSO now has a permanent home in Nairobi,” she said.
For Koskei, the new ambassadorship provides a platform to take the standards conversation beyond standards bodies and into government decision-making.
He pledged to work with ARSO member states, the private sector and national standards bodies to advance standardisation as a pillar of Africa’s industrialisation, integration and shared prosperity.
“These are not ceremonial commitments. They are extensions of the work I do every day, and I intend to be judged by their follow-through,” Koskei said.
