Oil and Marine Agencies (OMA) Ghana, a leading indigenous shipping and logistics company, secured the ISO 9001:2008 certificate for operating its Quality Management Systems in compliance with international standards and best practices.

The issuance of the ISO certificate no. 162084-2014 by the reputable ISO audit company Det Norske Veritas (DNV), an international classification society, followed rigorous assessment carried out by DNV.

It specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide high quality services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

It also aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

"What this means for OMA Ghana is that their products and services meet international standards and are capable of delivering the same high quality service at all times. It also paves the way for OMA Ghana to bid for international contracts and cater for high value customers around the globe," said Samuel Edmund, Executive Director of OMA Ghana.

“This combined with the quality, health, safety, environment (QHSE) culture, local training programme and commitment to corporate social responsibility ensure that we support the Ghanaian roots from which OMA has emerged,” he added.

OMA has several years of experience in the West African shipping and logistics sector, delivering cargo to offshore vessels, land locked countries as well as domestic deliveries for a wide portfolio of clients across all sectors of the countries in West Africa.

“During this period we have gained invaluable experience in reacting to the ever changing nature of the Ghana shipping and logistics market. Not many Ghanaian shipping and logistics providers have their services certified by a global standard body like DNV.

"The certification is consequently a major boost towards our quest to be a leading shipping service provider in Ghana. To the best of our knowledge we are the first, and only indigenous shipping/logistics company to hold accreditation concurrently for both disciplines.”

OMA acts as agent for Hapag-Lloyd and many other International Shipping, Logistics, and Oil and Gas companies who operate in West Africa. They are also the network partner for GAC Shipping and handle a variety of vessels at Tema and Takoradi including tramp, tanker, crude, general cargo, liner, seismic, supply, naval, cruise and many other kinds of vessels.

“We believe just a few shipping agencies in Ghana handle the diversity of vessel types in the ports. As a result of this we have excellent cooperation with all ports in Ghana and well established contacts to achieve the level of services required by our ship owners.”