The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, on Monday, partnered with the Nigeria Export Promotion Council and other stakeholders to tackle the issue of the rejection of exports overseas.
At the national workshop for stakeholders in the export of NAFDAC-regulated products, in Lagos, the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said that NAFDAC partnered with Nigeria Export Promotion Council, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Services, CBN Trade & Exchange Department. housing the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme, towards achieving that aim.
Speaking on the workshop focus, titled ‘Achieving Sustainable Export of Regulated Products: The Imperatives’, the director revealed that the previous and perennial state of international rejection of Nigerian exports was attributed to ignorance of the regulatory requirements from the importing country and sourcing of products from the open market without consciousness of intrinsic quality.
She blamed those who sabotaged national interest on the altar of selfish and temporal gain, deliberate and myopic unprofessional practices, such as adulteration of goods and commodities for weight gain, and others.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, recently disclosed that Nigeria had lost its leading position in the agriculture export markets because its agricultural commodities do not meet the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements of the foreign markets.