Agha Ibiam
25 March 2009
Lagos — The causes of global economic meltdown may not be known to some people, especially to the undeveloped minds, but its consequences are already here. Though believed to have emanated from the US, which experts said has a global economy, the crisis is also global and the solutions it is believed must be solved globally. But the crisis observers said is attributable to a lot of factors, and the major ones are inappropriate macroeconomic policies of some economies and their unsustainable model of development characterised by prolonged low savings and high consumption; excessive expansion of financial institutions in the blind pursuit of profit.
In essence, experts posit that the world has to deal with two linked crises at the same time. One is the consequence of the collapse of the US housing market, which has put pressures on bankers both in the US and elsewhere. The other one they said is the function of massive global imbalances between debtor and creditor nations that have developed over the last generation.
Be that as it may, some organisations in the country have suggested that for Nigeria economy to come out of the woods due to the global economic crisis, one thing that is paramount and must be executed by government is to ensure that quality goods are produced and imported into the country.
According to Mr. Lawrence Ogudu, country manager TCL Nigeria, an international certification body, during a training programme organised by the firm and Capable People of United Kingdom in Lagos, all over the world, manufacturing organisations and construction companies need quality goods or services that are certified to ISO standard, meaning that such a company has a quality management system in place.
He said, "when you have a process that stipulates how things are done in an organisation, productivity will be enhanced, profitability will be achieved and waste will be reduced and the product can compete with international markets.
The course was developed and packaged by Capable People of UK to train participants on quality management system. It was also designed to contribute to nation building by making qualitative education affordable and available to Nigerians.
Mr. Festus Kwode, quality management consultant however said that what the training is all about is to try to inculcate idea in people to manufacture good products and services so that the country can align with what is happening all over the world in terms of buying good products and having value for their hard earned money.
TCL Nigeria Ogudu said is basically for certification and it is done in conformity with international standard. There are three trainings he said individuals must go through before they could be ISO compliance. The three stages are the quality management system; environmental management system and the food industry where restaurants must be up to standard.
"We can enter a hotel and say the services are okay based on what and how they prepare their foods, likewise some companies that produce edible products. That is the kind of idea we are introducing. We also have TCL consulting which is a training outfit. Because we don't have the basis to develop this course, we invited Capable People so what we considered was first to develop people who will be able to compete to international standard, Ogudu said.
The organisation also promised to go into the area of scaffolding (for builders), where construction workers are trained to meet with international standard. "Our partner is here to train those who in turn will train others so that when they are not in the country, Nigerians can train others. Though in any training observed, examinations are conducted and papers sent to UK for marking before participants are certified," Kwode said.
But Mr. Shaun Sayers, managing director of Capable People UK, said if quality management system is entrenched in the Nigerian system of production and services that not only its products will compete with imported ones, but will not have good and bad years. To him, quality management system is all about consistency, so that the customers can have confidence and the variation on good and the bad days in business could be eradicated.
"What we are doing here is not a degree course. It is a professional training to practical skills. Every organisation needs it but most common in oil and gas because they are following the world class standard. We can do things to standard and goods produced in Nigeria will be competitive.
At this moment of economic recession Sayers said any organisation that understands and practice quality management system will go ahead and boost their product. He said what happens during recession is that organisations learn a lot of lessons. He said if an organisation doesn't get a boom, they are finished and what quality management tries to do is to encourage organisations to develop sustainable business modules and also know how to manage risk.
"People assume that everything will be great and nothing bad will ever happen, but sometimes bad things happen. What quality management does is to identify and manage those risks so that when the bad time comes you prepare and survive them. So quality management training increases the risk of survival, it identifies risks and manages risk. In management, risks could be successfully managed," Sayers said.
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