Presidency tasks NAFDAC to reduce products registration period to 60 days

THE Presidency on Tuesday charged the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to ensure that intended manufacturers get their products registered with the agency writhing 60 days to ease the process of doing business in the country.

The agency presently gives a 90 days period for registration of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). But the Special Adviser to the Vice President on MSMEs, Mr Fola Johnson, who spoke at a One-Day NAFDAC Stakeholders Consultative meeting held in Abuja, said 60 days should be sufficient enough for the agency to register companies for business.

He pointed out that collectively, the MSMES and NAFDAC must work together to ensure that people get their registration done within 60 days rather than 90 days.

He said, “60 days is possible. Collectively let us put our house together, both MSME, NAFDAC and the Federal Government, let us target 60 days. The shorter the time for registration the better for MSMEs, because just to collect registration numbers should not take months, when will you start the business, when will you start making profits.

“Any MSME that employs a person today is doing the Federal Government a huge favour. What the Federal Government is supposed to do is create enabling environment.

“It is the private sector that drives the economy, so we must encourage every activity that drives that space.”

In his address, the Acting Director General of NAFDAC, Mr Ademola Mogbojuri, who was represented by Dr Abubakar Jimoh, said the forum was organised by NAFDAC to ensure ease of doing business for MSMEs in Nigeria.

He added that the agency is Organising the platform to discuss with its stakeholders in order to identify the challenges they encounter in the cause of registering their products and to come up with a way forward towards eliminating such bottlenecks.

According to the acting director general, the Abuja forum is the first in the series to hold across the country, saying that the MSMEs play a vital role in the economic development of Nigeria and are known to be the main engine of economic growth.

Mr Mogbojuri said the MSMEs also provide a key factor in promoting private sector development and partnership, aid in the development of local technology and stimulate indigenous entrepreneurship while creating employment for the teeming population, especially the unemployed youths.

He said the agency is vested with the responsibility of ensuring that all regulated products manufactured, imported, exported, distributed, advertised, sold and used in Nigeria are registered in accordance with the Food, Drug and Related Products Registration Act cap F33 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.