The Namibian Standards Institution

The Namibian Standard Institution (NSI) is one of the key perfomance indicators (KPI) of the country's national quality infrastructure. The first is the National Quality Policy (NQP) adopted by the cabinet. The other KPI is the Legal Infrastrucure consisting of the Standards Act No 18 of 2005, the Metrology Ammendment Act No 17 of 2005 and the Accreditation Board of Namibia Act No 8 of 2005.

The NSI has a separate legal entity as an incorporated company or an association not for gain, in terms of Section 21 of the Companies Act of 1973, with its own Memorandum and Articles of Association.  It is governed by a five member Board of Directors who were appointed to provide the strategic leadership until the entry into force of the Standards Act of 2005 when the Namibian Standards Council will be appointed to lead the NSI as a statutory specialised agency of the government under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The expected results of the NSI Programme are an established and functional national standards body in Namibia, capable of :

• developing, adopting and applying standards;
  
• providing accurate measurement traceability to the international standards (SI) through the metrology division;
  
• providing reliable testing especially for food such as fish and fishery products including shellfish, beef and agro-products and rendering food safety technical support to the aquaculture, fishing and other industries through regular tests conducted at the NSI Biotoxins and Microbiology laboratories at Walvis Bay and through NSI Inspection and Certification.