NAFDAC, SON Abridge Time for Issuing Approvals

Tobi Soniyi in Abuja

The Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mr. Aboloma Osita, has said the agency will henceforth issue required approvals within 60 days.

The announcement was made yesterday in Abuja during a follow-up meeting with the Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, medium and small scale business stakeholders from the state and some federal government regulatory agencies.

At the meeting, also attended by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Minister, Dr. Okey Enelamah, and the Minister of State in the ministry, Mrs. Aisha Abubakar, the Acting President directed both the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and SON, to ascertain specific timelines within which they would be able to grant licenses and approvals required of them by Nigerians and business interests.

Also the Acting Director-General of NAFDAC, Mrs. Yetunde Oni said within 90 days the agency would issue required licenses.

Both officials said the timing start from the day the requests are submitted.
Osinbajo said regulatory agencies like NAFDAC and SON would be judged by how many people, businesses they were able to support “to achieve the greatest public good.”

He said it was the role of government’s regulatory agencies to act as catalysts of beneficial change and to take responsibility for facilitating businesses in the country

“We must see ourselves as agents of some catalytic change, we must take some responsibility to make profound changes possible,” Osinbajo said.

The acting president had visited Aba to flag-off the presidency’s MSMEs Clinics where medium & small scale businesses are brought together in one spot with federal government regulatory agencies they interface with.
He commended the Abia State Governor, for his drive, adding that ‘Made in Aba’ products were now acquiring a mark of quality.

Said he: “like I said during my visit to Aba, you can’t have any serious kind of industrialisation in this country, without a focus on Aba.”