NAFDAC Orders Certification of All Products for Export

•Laments lack of data on product  export

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said henceforth all exporters of goods and products regulated by the agency must obtain necessary certifications for processing of their products.

NAFDAC also revealed that a total of 68 products exported to the United Kingdom (UK) between January and June this year, were rejected by the UK authorities based on poor standards.

NAFDAC’s  Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who gave this charge at a press conference in Abuja, yesterday, warned that the agency would not hesitate to apply sanctions as provided in the status book against defaulters.

According to her, the rate with which goods exported from Nigeria were being rejected by foreign countries was becoming embarrassing and shameful.

Speaking against the background of growing incidence of rejection of the  goods exported to European countries from Nigeria, Adeyeye said she met with the UK Food Standard Agency (FSA) during the recently concluded workshop on Nigeria-UK Enhanced Trade & Investment Partnership (ETIP) held in London, to discuss the issue.

She said the meeting which was hosted under the UK-Developing Country Trading Scheme (UK-DCTS) with the Nigerian delegation led by Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, & Investment (FMITI) sought to engage the FSA, “on the unabated incidences of reject of Nigerian food products exported to the United Kingdom, non-notifications on such rejects and non-engagement of NAFDAC on the matter and the need for mutual recognition of electronic certification of both government agencies of export certification, among others.”

Adeyeye said going forward NAFDAC would holding sensitisation meetings with stakeholders especially traders and business owners with a view to intimating them of the need to abide by the laid down processes for approving export of goods from the country.

“In the interim, I implore all Nigerian exporters trading in NAFDAC regulated products to obtain necessary certifications for processing of their products.

“These could be processed, semi-processed, food-destined for further processing or bulk food such as cocoa, sesame seed, groundnut, melon or grains (e.g., beans, indigenous rice, etc.) tea materials, ogbono and mellon; drugs, cosmetics, chemicals, agro-chemicals, beverages, fruit juices, and medical devices.

“All exporters should join hands with NAFDAC and contact the Agency for more information on Single Window Trade (SWT) portal: www.trade.gov.ng. 

“They must leave ample time for processing unless their product is already registered (for destination country), the facility already has cGMP certification, and the client has been a regular exporter with good records with NAFDAC. They are all also enjoined to contact NAFDAC website to read up and comply with the stated steps on the guidelines,” she said.

Adeyeye, however said it was to NAFDAC’s credit, that out of the hundreds of products whose export process passed through NAFDAC, none had suffered rejection to date.

She said  going forward, in order to stem the worsening situation, “No patriot should export any NAFDAC-regulated product without it passing through and being certified of its safety and quality status including full compliance with the destination country government requirements.

“This is also very important to avert colossal economic loss resulting from the rejection of non-compliant exports by the trading partners.”

While lamenting the absence of requisite data on exported products from Nigeria, the NAFDAC DG said almost all exported food products were processed without the statutory testing by NAFDAC at the various ports.