The 26th General Assembly of the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO) has elected the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) Prof Alex Dodoo as its next president.

He will succeed BOOTO à NGON Charles when he steps down in June 2022, after the unanimous victory in Kigali, Rwanda.

In his speech after the win, Prof Dodoo expressed gratitude to member-states for the trust and confidence reposed in Ghana and his candidature.

“I am delighted to be given the opportunity to serve, having in mind the enormous task of supporting our respective governments in making the AfCFTA a success which is key to the continent post-covid recovery,” the president-elect said.

The world body in-charge of standards, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) congratulated Ghana and Prof. Dodoo on the election victory, urging the ARSO president-elect to support member-states to strengthen their national quality infrastructure.

“We can only harmonize standards when we have robust national quality infrastructure,” ISO President Eddy Njoroge said in his congratulatory remarks.

The ARSO presidency is the latest leadership role Ghana has secured after Africa’s top gold producer was elected to the United Nations Security Council last Friday.

In a brief remarks to the assembly, the Director-General of Standards Organization of Nigeria, Mallam Farouk Salim said the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has magnified the need for standards to be regionally harmonized to promote intra-trade.

Prof Dodoo emerged as the choice of all the member-states on the back of his vision to rapidly harmonize standards on the continent, while leveraging on the proximity of AfCFTA secretariat being in Accra to further the aims of ARSO.

“It is only appropriate that Ghana takes up the presidency of ARSO at this time to drive the harmonization agenda,” the president-elect said.

The clinical scientist, who doubles as ARSO’s Goodwill Ambassador to the AfCFTA secretariat, will serve between 2022 and 2025.