The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has reduced the timeline for registration of regulated products to 90 days for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria.
The Acting Director General of NAFDAC, Ademola Mogbojuri, disclosed this at a stakeholders consultative meeting on “ease of doing business in Nigeria”, organised by the agency in Abuja.
Mogbojuri, represented by Dr. Abubakar Jimoh, the Director of Special Duties, said the step was in compliance with the Federal Government’s programme on ease of doing business in the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that before the new policy, registration of a product with NAFDAC used to take between 10 months and one year.
It also involved a series of activities, ranging from product’s laboratory analysis, facilities inspection and website registration among others.
The acting director-general said the agency had also granted 50 per cent reduction in the cost of registration of products for companies with five or less than five employees.
He said that electronic submission of documents was introduced to reduce the time it took for hard copies to get to the directorate in Lagos.
Mogbojuri said NAFDAC had also relaxed some of its rules to ensure things were easier for MSMEs, adding that all these were done without compromising standard.
The acting director general said that a vast majority of products manufactured by MSMEs were regulated by NAFDAC to ensure they complied with relevant quality and safety specifications.
He Said: “It is our mandate to ensure foods are wholesome, safe and nutritive as well as register all regulated products and ensure they conform to acceptable standard.”
Mogbojuri gave the assurance that NAFDAC would continue to meet with the stakeholders to resolve challenging issues faced by MSMEs.
In his remarks, the Special Assistant to the Vice President on MSMEs, Tola Johnson, lauded the agency for keying into the federal government’s ease of doing business programme.
Johnson appealed to NAFDAC to further reduce the registration timeline to 60 days.
He said: “The stress being faced by MSMEs where registration used to take the span of one year or thereabout is unacceptable.
“The Federal Government is ready and committed to support NAFDAC in its quest to promote ease of doing business.”
The vice-president’s aide advised the regulatory agency to organise such meetings in other parts of the country and hold them quarterly, if possible.