•Prof Mojisola Adeyeye
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has lamented the negative response often accompany Nigeria’s food and agricultural products that exported to European Union (EU) and other countries of the world.
It said Nigeria loses billions of naira annually in foreign trade that could have benefitted its people in terms of financial and logistics empowerment, as about 70 per cent of the food products export are rejected because they did not go through NAFDAC regulatory assessment.
NAFDAC, in a statement, yesterday, said its Director General, Mojisola Adeyeye, registered the concerns at a recent meeting with members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), in Lagos, led by its National President, Emenike Nwokochi.
Adeyeye said the agency had analysed the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) from the EU and observed most rejected products by the EU that failed relevant tests were not having the right documentation/certifications.
She said international market is competitive in nature, and only welcomes products of high quality with relevant certifications and quality packaging that is environmentally friendly and beneficial to trade globally.
“The problem of quality, standard, certification and appropriate packaging for made-in-Nigeria products destined for export has been an issue in the international market. We need proper collaboration and synergy between all stakeholders to curb the negative behaviour of some of these exporters, and ensure only quality and certified products are exported,’’ she said.
She, however, emphasised the need to address the issue of rejections, adding that some exporters obtain the wrong documentation, especially fake laboratory results, instead of presenting their products to NAFDAC’s ISO 17025:2015 accredited laboratories for analysis.
Adeyeye said NAFDAC has the responsibility to regulate and control the manufacture, importation, exportation, distributionm advertisement, sale and consumption of drugs, food and other regulated products in Nigeria.
“NAFDAC, having attained the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems that covers all regulatory processes and procedures and certified WHO GBT maturity level 3, places great premium on deepening use of science in its regulatory processes and self-developments,’’ she said.
