The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) disclosed that over 70% of food exports from Nigeria are rejected abroad, according to the Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye. This revelation was made during the inaugural ceremony of the new NAFDAC office complex for the Murtala Muhammed International Airport/NAHCO in Lagos.
A statement released by Sayo Akintola, the resident media consultant to NAFDAC, quoted Mrs Adeyeye as saying that the rejection of Nigerian food exports in some European countries and the United States of America may soon become a thing of the past if the collaboration between NAFDAC and other government agencies at the ports is strengthened.
Mrs Adeyeye pointed out that the deplorable state of export trade facilitation for regulated products that leave the country is a serious concern for the agency. She, however, reassured stakeholders that NAFDAC is responding to the challenge by working with agencies at the ports to ensure that goods meet the regulatory requirements of the destination countries and importing countries.
She also said that NAFDAC’s mandate to ensure the health of the populace by ensuring that medicines, food, cosmetics, medical devices, chemicals, and packaged water are safe, efficacious and of the right quality, is a challenging one in an economy that depends on the bulk of its finished products and raw materials from imports.
Furthermore, Mrs Adeyeye praised the collaboration between NAFDAC and Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Services, customs, Interpol, Department of State Services (DSS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and police in making NAFDAC’s work efficient. She referred to NAFDAC as a complex organization that works with science, police, and other security agencies.
The NAFDAC DG lamented the role played by unscrupulous stakeholders in the export trade but affirmed the commitment of the agency to employ all relevant government agencies to combat the menace.
