All cement imported into Mozambique must be tested for quality, just as cement produced in local factories is tested for quality, announced the general director of the National Norms and Quality Institute (INNOQ), Alfredo Sitoe, at a Maputo seminar on Monday.
The regulation imposing quality tests on imported cement is dated 18 July 2016, but only took effect in January 2017.
The new regulation is intended to guarantee that all cement sold on the Mozambican market is of good quality.
All importers of cement, Sitoe said, must contact INNOQ and state from which country they intend to import. INNOQ will then contact the certifying body in that country, so that, when the cement enters Mozambique, INNOQ will already have a credible certificate stating that the product is trustworthy.
But this does not mean that there will be no certification tests within Mozambique, Sitoe added.
A spokesperson for the government’s National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE), Virginia Muianga, told the seminar that all the requirements stated in the new regulations must be complied with, otherwise there would be a risk of using poor quality cement that might endanger human lives and the environment.
“If factories do not observe these requirements, we shall have health and environmental problems”, she warned.
Muianga said that cement has been transported and sold in Mozambique under improper conditions, including exposure of the cement to the elements.
