The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has launched a nationwide sensitisation campaign on product registration and value addition for Micro Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs (MSMEs) operators across the country.
NAFDAC Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, noted the reason for the campaign on MSMEs and product value addition, which is to reiterate the critical role of small businesses in the nation’s economy.
Adeyeye who was represented by the NAFDAC Zonal Director, said: “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.’’
In a statement signed by NAFDAC Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola on Sunday, said their mandate is to register some of these products and they have decided to embark on sensitisation across the country.
Adeyeye further explained that value addition entailed transforming or converting raw materials into finished or semi-finished products, while maintaining product quality, adding that at the end of the sensitization 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 boss 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.
Adeyeye urged over 700 participating MSMEs, 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 SMEs with consultants hence, we urge them to deal directly with the agency,” Adeyeye said.
Earlier in his remarks, Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni described the sensitization as part of the recovery process from the destructive activities of Boko Haram in the state.
Buni said the state government partnered the Agency so as to extend the reach of locally produced goods to market both within and outside the country.
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