The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC, has begun a nationwide sensitisation campaign on product registration and value addition for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises operators across the country. Speaking at a one-day sensitisation campaign on MSMEs registration and product value addition organised by the Agency in collaboration with the Yobe State government in Damaturu on Wednesday, the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye reiterated the critical role MSMEs play in the nation’s economy.
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 sensitisation across the country’’, Prof Adeyeye was quoted as saying in a statement signed by NAFDAC Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola on Friday in Abuja. NAFDAC considers Yobe State as an excellent partner in executing our mandate in the state, which is why we are here to sensitise 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, adding that at the end of the sensitisation 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 protect the general 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 trade groups at the event to 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. In his remarks, Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni described the sensitisation 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.
