stakeholders express concern over fake products in nigeria

Stakeholders in the Nigerian retail business have expressed concern over the flooding of the market with fake products.
At a one-day seminar entitled “Building Capacity to Create and Sustain Superior Performance in the Retail Business in Nigeria” organized by the United States Consulate General in Lagos, the stakeholders lamented that the ‘flow’ of fake products in the market has adversely affected the sale of genuine products.
They urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to urgently take action to check the development. They listed counterfeit products, the lengthy time it takes NAFDAC to register products and expired products as some of the constraints facing them.
In her remarks, the Deputy Director of NAFDAC, Mrs Esther M. Amuta explained that several agencies are involved in the process of registration of products though NAFDAC has the statutory mission in taking care of retail food business.
She said NAFDAC gas put in place regulatory policies to monitor every product manufactured in the country or imported from abroad. She observed that stakeholders in the retail business are facing problem of registration because often they submit incomplete documents. “If the documents are incomplete, the documentation process will be delayed, She said. She stressed that NAFDAC does not manipulate the process of registration, adding that if documents were complete and properly submitted, there would be no delay in documentation.
Commenting, the Head of Food Department, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Mrs Margret Esheitt noted that retail food business in Nigeria lacks the proper techniques of product packaging. “Every manufacturing company should ensure that appropriate materials are used to package their products,” she advised.
Earlier, United States Department of Agriculture’s Regional Agricultural Counselor, Kurth Seifarth had told participants that the objective of the seminar is to create and sustain superior performance in the retail business in Nigeria and also to make sure they have the latest information to do the job well.
Seifarth said this would enable stakeholders to participate properly in the importation and exportation of goods in addition to maintaining good relations between the U.S. and Nigerian markets.

credit; sun news