Our reporter The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has given assurance that it will solve the challenge posed by the international rejection of Nigerian exports by fully automating the Export Licensing of regulated products. The Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye made the promise while speaking on Monday at a national workshop for stakeholders in the export of NAFDAC-regulated products in Lagos. The workshop was titled, ‘Achieving Sustainable Export of Regulated Products: The Imperatives’.

According to her, the agency has partnered with several key organisations including the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, the Nigeria Customs Service, and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Services. She also said NAFDAC has collaborated with the CBN Trade & Exchange Department, which houses the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme. Adeyeye revealed that the previous and perennial state of international rejection of Nigerian exports had been attributed to the gross absence or negligence of regulatory supervision in the areas of Food Safety and Quality; the evasion or rejection of statutory stipulations of minimum requirements for product quality; packaging, and storage conditions for shipping of regulated products in international commerce, and to mention a few.

The NAFDAC DG said the agency licenses would be a requirement for the issuance of Form e-NXP for regulated products. She noted that it became necessary to regulate and automate the e.