GENERAL NOTICE
WARNING ON THE REVOCATION OF CERTIFICATION AND WITHDRAWAL FROM THE MBS PRODUCT CERTIFICATION SCHEME
The Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) is a statutory organization established in 1972 by an Act of Parliament, Cap 51:02 (revised as Act No. 14 of 2012), with the mandate to promote metrology, standardization, and quality assurance of commodities and of the manufacture, production, processing or treatment thereof; and further to provide for matters incidental to, or connected with standardization.
The MBS implements a Regulatory Product Certification scheme for locally manufactured products and services offered to the public as part of its mandate to facilitate trade and promote the quality of life. This is achieved by undertaking conformity assessments and granting certification to product and services that comply with the relevant Malawi standards. To ensure that Business Operators continue to comply with the requirements for which certification was based, the MBS conducts routine surveillance inspections which are used to make certification decisions to award, suspend, or withdraw the certification based on the compliance status. This helps to protect the consumers from patronising substandard, defective, unsafe and poor quality products from the market.
It is against this background that the MBS hereby issues a warning to the local Business Operators whose certification for their products and services has exceeded 1 year (pre-certification holders) and 2 years (permit and designation certificate holders) to ensure that validity of their certification is renewed by 31st January, 2024. The MBS as mandated by the MBS Act (2012) and Certification Marks Regulations (2016) shall withdraw from the Product Certification scheme all products and services with invalid certification status at the expiry of the deadline given if compliance of the products and or production processes is not achieved. Once withdrawn, resumption of production and sell of the products on the market, and provision of services to the public shall only be allowed following re-registration into the MBS Product Certification schemes and re-issuance of the certification.
For more information don’t hesitate to contact the Director of Quality Assurance on 0882004488 or gchaonamwene@mbsmw.org. We are expecting cooperation from all concerned stakeholders on this and related matters.
The MBS would like to inform the general public that through our continued conformity assessments will ensure that only safe and quality products and services are offered across the country. The MBS is therefore requesting the general public to notify the MBS on any information malpractices on the market including suspicions of substandard product or service through the toll-free number 462 on both Airtel Malawi and Telekom Network Malawi (TNM) lines
The Director General