By Cecilia Chiluba/Zambiya/Lusaka
Zambia and South Africa have taken a significant step toward strengthening regional trade and economic integration.
This follows the signing of an implementation plan under an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) and the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).
The partnership focuses on harmonizing standards, developing laboratory and testing capacity, strengthening certification systems, and promoting the exchange of technical expertise. These measures are intended to support businesses, protect consumers, and improve the safety as well as quality of products in both markets.
Through the partnership, Zambia is seeking to leverage South Africa’s longer experience in industrial and standards development. The two countries also aim to make standards more accessible and practical — not merely as documents, but as tools that enable businesses to produce goods that meet customer expectations, enhance safety, and access new markets.
This will be achieved through knowledge exchange, joint training, technical assistance, and the sharing of resources and experiences.
ZABS Executive Director Nathan Sing’ambwa said the collaboration will help harmonize standards and make it easier for Zambian products to access South African markets, and vice versa.
At the signing ceremony in Lusaka-Zambia, Mr. Sing’ambwa emphasized that standards are essential because they protect consumers, support businesses, and enable countries to trade with confidence.
“The document we are signing today provides a clear and practical road-map for cooperation. It outlines how we will work together through shared expertise, capacity building, cooperation in testing and certification, and mutual learning. It turns our partnership into something measurable, visible, and beneficial to our stakeholders,” Mr. Sing’ambwa said.
He noted that the partnership is particularly valuable for ZABS, given SABS’s long-standing experience and strong reputation.
Mr. Sing’ambwa explained that for industry, businesses, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the collaboration means improved access to support, clearer pathways to quality, and greater confidence in the products and services they offer, making it easier to trade, certify products for export, and build trust among buyers.
“For consumers, it means greater assurance that what they use, consume, or rely on meets acceptable levels of safety and reliability. Beyond institutional collaboration, this partnership will strengthen our national capacity to deliver products and services that are trusted, not only locally but across borders,” he added.
He further stated that by ensuring Zambian products meet consistent and internationally recognized benchmarks, ZABS is supporting local industry growth while strengthening regional and global trade relationships.
Meanwhile, SABS Chief Operations Officer, Thabo Stephen Sepuru said the partnership is built on a shared history of sacrifice and solidarity, emphasizing that standards are the source and basic equalizer for commerce.
“Without standards, Zambian products will only end here, and South African products will only end in South Africa and nowhere else. And so, giving effect to the signed MoU in the form of an implementation plan, we are holding each other accountable on what we should deliver for both the countries, citizens as well as businesses,” he said.
Mr. Sepuru stating that aligning standards would allow products manufactured in either country to move seamlessly across borders without technical barriers.
He also acknowledged that Africa continues to trade more with external markets than within the continent, despite having the population and production capacity to sustain stronger intra-African trade.
“We are a huge market that is not adequately traded amongst ourselves, and that calls for us to have a mechanism that assists us to have regional integration,” Mr. Sepuru emphasized.
The partnership is expected to serve as a building block for wider sub-regional integration, with the long-term goal of advancing continent-wide standardization under AfCFTA.
