Food Business Owners Cry Out over FX Scarcity, Over Regulation

Oluchi Chibuzor

Food entrepreneurs in the country are lamenting the crunching effects of scarce foreign exchange and the intimidating regulatory activities of government agencies on their business.
According to them, these challenges are crippling their businesses. They, however call for more monitoring along the food business value chains by allowing consistent policy.

Speaking at a maiden business food summit with the theme, ‘Building a Sustainable Food Business: Opportunities and Key Drivers’, the convener, Mr. Razak Oke said until all stakeholders in the industry understands issues affecting the sector, it would not bloom.

He stated that at Fooddotcomacademy, they want to substantially reduce the number of Small and Medium Business Enterprises in the food sector that fail and are not sustainable beyond five years in Nigeria.

According to him, “In recent times, experts have argued in favour of well-rounded discussion on building sustainable food business as a panacea to reducing poverty and equipping our restive youths and change the focus of our fresh graduates from social vices.
“At this 2023 edition of the Business of Food Summit, experts and professionals will dissect opportunities and key drivers to sustaining any food business of our choice while also proffering solutions to SMEs failure like stressing the importance of having a simplified business plan which is essential to the success of any business.”

Giving her opening remarks, the Chief Executive Officer, COMSIA Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Olusola Adesokan, said the event provided experts the opportunity to share their experiences on better ways to build a sustainable food business while highlighting the various challenges along the route and how to surmount it to achieve a greater success.

According to her, it was instructive to note that “our gathering here today is to find an appropriate response to all the myriads of challenges confronting us as food entrepreneurs and potential investors and to proffer reasonable solutions to them.”
She added, “Permit me to highlight some of the problems those SMEs in Food Business in Nigeria are confronted with daily; lack of clear succession plan; fluctuation of Forex, perceived intimidation by regulatory authorities; Insecurity and Political Instability, Bad and Inconsistent government Policy, multiple taxation and lack of Market Information and Data.”

He stressed that regulatory compliance was key to food business survival and sustainability across all categories of business levels within the food industry.
Making her presentation the Director, The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control in Nigeria(NAFDAC) Lagos State Office, Dr. Monica Eimunjeze, advised, “that any intending food business owner must understand complying with regulatory framework remains key to attaining profitability.”
“We as an agency always strive to ensure checks and balances across the food value chains so that necessary compliance frameworks are met by the industry in line with global industry.”

But for the Assistant Director, Scientific Investigation, Research and Development(SIRD), Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency, Mr. Lucas Raheem, the state would not tolerate unwholesome distribution of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in unlabelled repacked forms.
“We have warned and will continue to discourage those who circumvent regulation to sell unwholesome FMCG in the state. We will not tolerate it.”