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.