Stop patronising ‘consultants’, NAFDAC warns food, drugs manufacturers

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has called on the nation’s manufacturers, especially those into foods and drugs production, to seek approvals from the agency, directly, rather than go through third parties or consultants.

The agency’s Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, gave this warning, recently, at the virtual launch of a ‘Sectoral Report on NAFDAC’, organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), in collaboration with the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).

Adeyeye, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Ports Inspection, Professor Samson Adebayo, described, as illegal, the activities of manufacturers that still sought the agency’s approvals for their products, through ‘consultants’ or third parties, while the doors of the agency were wide open for such transactions.

The NAFDAC’s boss added that, as a way of discouraging such act, the agency had put out procedures and processes for products’ approvals on its website, to help applicants.

She expressed her displeasure that in spite of the agency’s ‘open door policy’, some manufacturers still prefer to patronise such consultants, because of a ‘defeatist mindset’ that made them believe they would have to cut corners to get the agency’s approval for their products.

“I think we should blame those who claimed to have done business with the agency, without such transactions being receipted. We have long frowned at the consultancy. And that is why we always insist that if you have your papers, we are always available for you. But one thing the agency will not do is to compromise on quality,” she stated.

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The NAFDAC boss added that some staff of the agency, found to have committed such infractions in the past, had been shown the way out, adding that the agency would not relent in its efforts at sensitising Nigerians, especially foods and drugs manufacturers on the need to engage with the agency, directly.

In her welcome address, the President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mrs Toki Mabogunje, described the event as a fall-out of the Chamber’s collaboration with CIPE and CBI to conduct a study on Transactional Accountability, Process Consistency, and Operational Transparency in Nigeria, with focus on NAFDAC.

She explained that the aim was to facilitate conversations on how the private and public sectors could collaborate in strengthening the quality of the nation’s regulatory processes, as a way of supporting Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

Also speaking at the event, the Country Director, Nigeria Center for International Private Enterprise, Mrs Omowuwi Gbadamosi, explained that the decision of the agency to collaborate with LCCI was informed by the need to strengthen governance gap and the nation’s regulatory institutions.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE