On Tuesday, January 31, 2023, the Ivorian Minister of Trade, Industry and the Promotion of SMEs released the information that the West African Accreditation System (SOAC) has accredited 37 laboratories, including 20 based in Côte d'Ivoire. It was during a high-level virtual workshop of public authorities on the challenges of économie national standardization activities.

The workshop was organized by the Réseau Normalization et Francophonie (RNF) and Côte d'Ivoire Standardization (CODINORM) with the collaboration of the Ministry of International Relations and the Francophonie of Quebec. Indeed, the 20 laboratories accredited by SOAC operate in the fields of medical biology, calibration, analysis and testing and two certification bodies. According to Souleymane Diarrassouba, the Ivorian government has also taken actions to strengthen the national quality infrastructure by facilitating the operationalization of the Regional Accreditation Body called SOAC.

For the Ivorian Minister of Trade, Industry and the Promotion of SMEs noted that today, global trade is constantly globalized with the abolition of tariff and non-tariff barriers and the liberalization of trade, requires products and services to comply with regulatory requirements in order to access international markets.