19 Apr 2021

 Individuals and distributors have been advised to confirm the quality of products purchased online.

  Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) public relations officer, Ms Kagisano Lebani said in an interview that they could do so by requesting test reports or certificate of compliance from the manufacturer or distributor.

   Ms Lebani said BOBS would continue to verify compliance of regulated products to ensure their safety.

BOBS certified compliance of such products by conducting independent and random inspections as well as  sampling and testing to ascertain if they met relevant standards requirements.

She confirmed that alcohol based hand sanitizer was one such product where a certificate confirming compliance to the BOS 844:2020 Hand Sanitizers (Alcohol-Based) – Specification, must have been issued before it was placed in the Botswana market.

 The same procedure applied to imported hand sanitizers as application for importation must be made with BOBS and upon providing proof of compliance to the BOS 844:2020 standard, a certificate would be issued, she explained.  

Ms Lebani further explained that Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) also required BOBS certificates for imported regulated products.  

“BOBS through the technical committee for medical products have developed guidelines for surgical masks referred in the standard as Medical Face Masks but the standard is yet to be gazetted,” she said.

Therefore, she explained, testing of surgical masks by BOBS would only be carried once the standard  was gazetted.  

Ms Lebani said the guidelines were based on national, regional and international best practices.

She however explained that  medical and health products fell within the jurisdiction of the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BOMRA) and Ministry of Health and Wellness.  

 Ms Lebani also urged manufacturers to utilise BOBS standards to improve the quality of their products. ENDS