The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC on Sunday blamed middlemen for the numerous challenges encountered by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise operators in the course of registering their products.
This was disclosed in a statement and titled, ‘NAFDAC Sensitises Micro, Small, Medium Scale Entrepreneurs on Product Registration, Value Addition’ and signed by the agency’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola on May 9.
The statement reported that Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye addressed the menace of middlemen and consultants at a one-day sensitization campaign on MSMEs registration and product value addition organized in collaboration with the Yobe State government in Damaturu.
Prof. Adeyeye who was represented by the NAFDAC Zonal Director, North-East, Dr Bukar Usman mni, said that the Federal Government had identified MSMEs as very critical to the economy of the nation.
‘’Therefore, the Agency, whose mandate is to register some of these products, decided to embark on sensitization across the country.
‘’NAFDAC considers Yobe State as an excellent partner in executing our mandate in the state, which is why we are here to sensitize and educate these entrepreneurs on the basic tips, clues and easiest way to register their products, so that they can add value to commodities, especially agricultural commodities, without compromising quality and safety of the products,’’ she said.
She explained that value addition entailed transforming or converting raw materials into finished or semi-finished products, while maintaining product quality.
The NAFDAC boss noted that at the end of the sensitization campaign, the agency hoped to increase the number of people engaged in adding value to their products by registering their products with NAFDAC in order to safeguard the health of the public.
The NAFDAC DG maintained that this would have a multiplier effect on the individual families, on the economy of the communities and also the state as a whole by improving its internally generated revenue IGR.
Prof Adeyeye urged over 700 participating micro, small and medium scale entrepreneurs, and scores of groups at the event to always deal with the agency directly in getting their products registered, as opposed to going through various consultants and middlemen.
She explained that consultants and middlemen have been the reason for the increasing problems and high cost of registration, faced by the MSMEs in easily getting their products registered.
“Part of the problem we have had in the past regarding high registration costs is due to interactions of MSMEs with consultants hence, we urge them to deal directly with the agency,” Adeyeye said.
