The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has pledged to maintain the safety and standard quality of its regulated products despite the current economic challenges faced by the country. Mrs. Roseline Ajayi, the NAFDAC South-West Coordinator, made this pledge during a one-day stakeholder’s interactive meeting organized by the agency in Akure. She stated that the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeleye, had introduced some measures to ease the burden on the agency’s stakeholders.
Ajayi emphasized that all stakeholders operating in the regulatory space must embrace and confront the dynamic nature of the business environment to explore the opportunities inherent in the challenges. She noted that the business environment is experiencing several challenges, including subsidy removal, unpredictable exchange rates, unstable power supply, and other issues threatening business sustainability. However, she reiterated that standard standards and quality are not negotiable for those engaged in NAFDAC-regulated products.
Ajayi further explained that due to economic hardship, the Director-General had opened a window of three of months administrative charges waivers for late renethe wal of the license of the stakeholders from January to the end of March. However, she warned that anyone caught selling or producing unregistered products would be penalized with administrative charges.
In line with the directives of the NAFDAC Director-General to engage with different sectors of stakeholders, Ajayi said that the purpose of the stakeholders’ meeting was to safeguard the health of the nation. She added that the meeting was aimed at ensuring that only the right quality and safe products are made available to consumers in the country because it is unauthorized and a violation of the law for anybody to produce unhealthy products.
Ajayi also advised Nigerians to patronize only registered products, either imported or locally made, for their health benefits. She cautioned that consumers should be careful of what they are consuming and stop patronizing products without NAFDAC registration numbers. She emphasized that if consumers continue to patronize unregistered products, they are encouraging the producers to do more, but if they stop, the producers will go out of business.
Mr Charles Uwachukwu, a director in the agency’s office in Lagos, also enjoined producers to be mindful of what they produce for human consumption in the country. He cautioned them not to adulterate their products because they are serving the people and not animals. He added that if they cannot consume what they are producing, there is no reason for them to produce or go into any production. He warned them not to produce will jeopardize the health of the consumers.
One of the participants, Mr Mapay Rotimi, Chairman, Association of Table Water Producers (ATWAP), Akure zone, appreciated the NAFDAC DG three-month months license waivers. He also told the agency to regulate the issuance of licenses to water producers in the state. He expressed concern that in the process of competing with one another, some of the producers might be tempted to reduce the quality of their products to push them into the market. Therefore, he urged NAFDAC to ensure strict issuance of licenses to water producers in the state.
