From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised the alarm that many companies in Nigeria are operating with forged NAFDAC certificate.
The agency claimed that the forged certificate could have been procured through consultants even as it threatened to clamp down on defaulters as soon as possible.
Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who stated this in a statement, yesterday, warned companies with forged certificates to approach the agency for relevant documentation.
She advised companies with expired NAFDAC certificates, particularly those with exporting capacities to initiate the renewal process of their certificates before engaging in export, stressing that the representative of the agency at the National Approval Committee (NAC) would ensure that only registered NAFDAC regulated products are approved for export.
She said the agency’s participation in AfCFTA and ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) NAC was key to ascertaining the Certificate of Origin, and to ensure that only registered NAFDAC regulated products were approved for export.
She also encouraged Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) Zone Area to expand their business frontiers and enter the global market.