Victor Ezeja
Admin
The unwillingness of Nigerian food and drug exporters to comply with minimal sanitary and phytosanitary measures, their penchant for sourcing from open markets for exports without any safety or quality specifications, poor packaging and disregard for importation requirements of trading partners have been identified as reasons why foodstuffs and drugs from Nigeria don’t make it to countries with stringent market access.
This was disclosed by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) which vowed not to allow the unquantifiable embarrassment brought on Nigeria by unscrupulous exporters who sidestep the regulator only to have their goods rejected by the country of destination like those in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom.
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Addressing newsmen on Tuesday, the agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye maintained that exporters will no longer be allowed to export NAFDAC-regulated products without them being certified for safety and quality status including full compliance with the standards of the destination countries. She explained that this is to avert colossal economic loss resulting from the rejection of non-compliant exports by the trading partners and the damage to Nigeria’s reputation.
Adeyeye decried the rejection of the exported food and drug from Nigeria to the United Kingdom (UK), the EU and other places, saying, “The challenge bedeviling the export process of NAFDAC regulated products especially, assuring safety and quality status of food exports in Nigeria has been traced to:/ non-compliance with advisory guidelines established by NAFDAC to encourage participatory exports.”
The Director-General pointed out that it is not surprising that virtually all exported food products and drugs are rejected because they were processed without the statutory testing by NAFDAC for quality control and safety standards. She listed the reasons for this to include: “Non-utilization of hitherto free laboratory testing by NAFDAC for export samples coupled with the connivance of unscrupulous agents.
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“Exclusion of NAFDAC’s requirements for its regulated products in the mandatory pre-shipment inspection in the National Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) as administered by the FGN appointed Pre-shipment Inspection Agents (PIAs).
“Unwillingness of exporters to comply with minimal sanitary and phytosanitary measures required for exports to countries with stringent market access.
“Poor packaging, disregard for importation requirements of trading partners countries. Penchant for sourcing from open markets for exports without any form of minimal safety or quality specifications
“Unwillingness to invest in pre-export activities that help to ensure sustainable exports as well as disinformation on the roles of NAFDAC in the pre-shipment inspection and verification exercise of container stuffing”.
Adeyeye however said the agency has initiated several steps to curb the negative trend while urging exporters of NAFDAC’s regulated products to take advantage of the regulations and save the country further embarrassment from the international community.
The Director-General further disclosed that the food products and drugs regulator is on the verge of reviewing its extant tariff-based sanction regime for recalcitrant exporters for optimal effect.
