The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control [NAFDAC] has waived 50 per cent of the registration fee for locally manufactured products in a move aimed at incentivising the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises [SMEs] sub sector.
The Agency spokesperson, Dr. Abubarkar Jimoh, stated in a press statement that the measure was in response to the federal government’s policy to promote local manufacturing companies in order to boost the domestic economy.
He explained that the new policy under the leadership of the Agency’s Acting Director General, Mrs. Yetunde Oni, would go a long way to promote economic development.
Jimoh noted that in the past a lot of people and some licensed consultants had extorted money from innocent Nigerians in the name of NAFDAC registration. “Sometimes back, we discovered that a lot of people were extorting money from Nigerians for registration fee of products. We then decided to license some consultants who are professionals but those unscrupulous elements fizzled into the consultancy firm that registered with us and continued to extort money from potential entrepreneurs.”
The spokesperson said that they extorted as much as N250,000 to N300,000 for registration against the official fee of less than N50,000, claiming that part of the money will be used to settle NAFDAC officials.
He explained that in the last seven years, the former NAFDAC DG, Dr. Paul Orhii, introduced a policy that all young graduates willing to establish businesses would be given a waiver.