Caixa held the Quality Forum on 14 June to debate the positive impact of Certification in challenging times and bring the topic of Quality, and its impact on the competitiveness of Companies, onto the agenda. This is in addition to sharing the good practices of Certified Organisations in Cape Verde. This event, organized in partnership with the Institute for Quality Management and Intellectual Property (IGQPI), brought together representatives of various institutions and companies in the Auditorium of the Caixa Económica of Cape Verde and was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. Olavo Correia.

The Quality Forum was opened by the Chairman of Caixa's Executive Committee, Dr. António Moreira, who began by thanking IGQPI for sponsoring this event for the exchange of experience between certified companies. 

"We want to instill the culture of performing well always," said the Chairman of Caixa's Executive Committee, reaffirming Caixa's commitment to ingraining in its employees the values that lead to the habit of quality. "Of Caixa's various values, I would highlight stringency, diligence, and competence as being those that contribute to quality. These are, in fact, essential values for our employees to act with quality", said Dr. António Moreira.

Key to note, Caixa is a financial institution with two certifications. The Chairman of Caixa's Executive Committee highlighted this further pointing out that certification is not an end in itself, but rather a tool for the continuous improvement of the institution's operations, to meet customers' needs with quality. He also mentioned that the lack of quality can have financial and reputational costs, which are no less important.

During the first panel session of the Forum, Tomy Alves, Director of Services of Standardisation and Conformity Assessment of the Institute for Quality Management and Intellectual Property (IGQPI), addressed the forum his talk was entitled "The importance and impact of Certification in organizations". During his presentation, he explained the three pillars of the quality infrastructure (Normalisation, Metrology, and Conformity Assessment), further showing the difference between the concepts of Certification and Accreditation. In addition, the Director of Services at IGQPI explained what is needed to become certified and the factors that motivate Certification. One Tomy Alves took the stage to conclude by reiterating that 'Quality is the way, and he congratulated Caixa on its 10 years of Certification.

The second panel was dedicated to a discussion around Good Practices in Certified Organisations. Carlota Santos, Director of the Planning and Quality Office of CV Telecom, delivered "Certification in the Services Sector - The experience of CVTELECOM". She began by highlighting that without the involvement and engagement of top management it is not possible to implement the Quality Management System. "Its implementation has to do with a strategic decision on the part of top management," she said, for whom the focus of the Quality Management System should be on customer and stakeholder satisfaction. She explained that CVTELECOM followed a different path to certification from Caixa, but all came to a good end. Carlota Santos also highlighted the impacts of certification on employees and the company, ending with references to new certifications underway at CVTELECOM, namely ISO 45001 and ISO 27001.

In her speech, Dr. Elisete Lima, Director General of IN PHARMA, spoke about "Certification in Industries: The journey of IN PHARMA", the organization whose doors opened courtesy of the certification. "It is necessary to invest to conquer new markets", stated the General Director, who spoke of the benefits of accreditation, while pointing out that there are accreditation costs and costs of maintaining this accreditation that should be seen as investments. Dr. Elisete Lima concluded by mentioning the new challenges and objectives IN PHARMA has set in order to attain more certifications.

To end the second panel, Dr. Célia Santos, Executive Administrator of Caixa, explained the theme "The Quality Management System, ISO 9001 Certification - Experience of Caixa Económica de Cabo Verde", in which she described the evolution of the Quality Management System in Caixa. This was an opportunity to present the processes that support the company's activities and their interconnections, in addition to showing the impact that the ISO 9001 Certification had in improving the quality of service provision in this financial institution. Dr. Célia Santos stressed the commitment to quality and the satisfaction of Caixa's customers. "Quality is already part of Caixa's DNA. Today we are an example and inspiration for many", accentuated the Executive Administrator, recalling that certification lives on trust. "We want to transmit this confidence to the market and people," she concluded.

The QUALITY FORUM, on the theme "The positive impact of certification in challenging times," was closed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Dr. Olavo Correia, who congratulated Caixa on its 10 years of certification and also lauded it on placing this important issue for the country's collective future on the public agenda. 

"Certification is a question of survival," said the governor, who is of the opinion that we should focus on the value chain. "Our commitment is to help companies to be certified. This is because not certifying is the cheapest thing that gets expensive" explains Dr. Olavo Correia, who believes that certification guarantees quality and this guarantees the survival of companies.  

"Certification and quality should be acts of culture, they do not have to be an obligation," concluded the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance who reiterated the importance of the QUALITY FORUM and who highlighted the need to take the discussion beyond the forum for a wider debate. 

This QUALITY FORUM: "The positive impact of Certification in challenging times" was concluded with a cocktail offered to the gathering.

Quality is what defines us

See the best moments of the QUALITY FORUM.