Impact of the Ethiopian National Quality Infrastructure Institutions on the Economic Development of the Country:

Abstract

An institutionalized and functional NQI system is important to the Economic Development, Technological innovations, Technology transfer and usage and smooth trade relations across the globe. The Ethiopian National Quality Infrastructure (ENQI) is a general name given for Ethiopian Standards Agency (ESA), National Metrology Institute of Ethiopia (NMIE), Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise (ECAE) and EthiopianNational Accreditation Office(ENAO) Combined and of course with a functional enforcing Regulatory institutionalized systems . Since the global market competition in 21st century is depending on Quality, countries are highly investing and giving attention to their National Quality Infrastructures. So what does it resemble in Ethiopia? The purpose of this thesis is to see what the impact of the NQI looks like in Ethiopia. The study raises questions about the benefits NQI implementation, the contribution to the economic development, its weaknesses and strengths to implement NQI, the accessibility and the capabilities it lacks to implement the standards developed, the capabilities and coherence of regulatory bodies among themselves and with NQIs was raised. In addition what the industry and NQIs are expected to perform in knowledge management? The availability of the National Quality Policy and the general public and enterprise awareness was also raised. Purposive sampling technique was employed randomly in a stratified population of experts and mangers. Both qualitative and quantitative research is used in the study. Questionnaires, interviews and document reviews were employed for collection of the data. To analyze the data, both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results of the findings are shown both qualitatively and quantitatively. Results revealed that there is an increasing service demand for NQIs while the overall performance of NQI is at average level and the NQIs are implementing systems and building the necessary facilities to solve the demands. Lack of focused policy and strategy on NQI, poor knowledge management, average collaboration and coherence, poor standard implementation proactively, repetition of mandates of regulatory bodies have hindered the NQs role in economic development. So, frequent awareness creation program, stakeholders‘ participation in NQI studies should be considered. The coherence of NQI institutions within themselves and with Regulatory bodies has to be increased for a better service, technology transfer and usage.