In its quest to finding lasting solutions to the problem of Nigeria non-oil export rejects abroad, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has once again extended hands of collaboration to critical stakeholders in the nation’s ports with a view to working together to revamp the export trade in the non-oil sector and reduce the rejection of Nigerian products thereby positioning the country in a better state in the Global market.

The Director General, NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye who was ably represented by Dr Abimbola Adegboye, the Director, Port Inspection Directorate (PID), who also heads the Office of Trade and International Relations (OTIR), at a consultative meeting with Pre-shipment Inspection Agents on Friday, expressed the Agency’s discomfort with the alarming rate of rejections of food exports from Nigeria.

She pointed out that the meeting was aimed at building effective collaboration with NAFDAC to complement its robust regulatory policies geared toward understanding the NAFDAC export processes, collaboration to safeguard a unified exportation procedure and zero rejects of Nigeria export products.

She expressed dismay that a competent authority on food safety matter with all her acclaimed global accreditation in food safety testing could be totally blanked out in the listed requirements for issuance of Clean Certificate of Inspection (CCI) by the Pre-shipment Inspection Agents. No wonder there are high volumes of reject from Nigeria as the NAFDAC regulated products were not tested nor production processes validated for compliance before export.

Present at the meeting were the top management staff of Neroli Technologies Limited, the agent covering South-south and South-west zone; Anglia International Services Limited, the agent covering North-West and North-Central zone and Gojopal Nigeria Limited, the PIA covering North-East and South-East zone. They all made commitments to immediate rectification of this lapse on their website and their process and enlightening their client to use the Nigeria Single Window for Trade portal (www.swt.gov.ng)to procure their exports certification.

NAFDAC as a Governmental Agency was established by Enabling Act Cap N1 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 which empowers the Agency as the competent authority in Nigeria and charged with the responsibility of regulating and controlling the quality of manufactured, importation, exportation, distribution, advertisement, sale, and consumption of food, drug, chemicals, and other regulated products. Essentially, the NAFDAC mandate is to ensure traded products are of good quality, safe and wholesome.

The Port Inspection Directorate of the Agency has met with the Chairman of Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) and Nigeria Export Supervision Scheme NESS, Area Comptroller of Nigeria Customs Services at the Ports, advocacy visits were made to export sheds at seaports, airports, and land boarders.

She however, expressed her appreciation of the activities of PIAs as a main actor in the processes chain of exportation adding that coming together of the critical stakeholders will help make the trade of non-oil sector to be better, more robust and more consultative.

“NAFDACs door is opened to enhance export and trade, we encourage and support trade of quality products,” she said, adding that “we are enjoining the PIAs to be part of the game and to make sure we collaborate effectively.”

The NAFDAC boss noted that the Agency acknowledges the importance of having broader and deeper Interactions and collaborations with sister agencies such as Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) etc.

Prof Adeyeye emphasised the position of export as a major aspect of building every country’s economy because of its importance in international trade and economic stability, therefore the reason for regulation of the sector is to ensure that products that leave a country’s shores are of good quality, safe and meet international best practices among others.

For Nigeria, she said trade is critical to the national economic makeup, adding that in 2021, Nigeria exported $57.7 billion of goods, making it the world’s 52nd most exporting country.

Prof. Adeyeye disclosed that Cocoa beans, sesame seeds, cashew and seven other products top the list of agricultural commodities Nigeria exported within the first nine (9) months of 2022, generating N427.6 billion or $1.02billion.

The DG reiterated that huge volume of Nigeria’s exported agricultural commodities were often rejected by the European Union for not meeting required standards, adding that EU countries seized about 82 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural products exported illegally.

According to her, these products are non-documented items and people move them out without clearance by the relevant regulatory agency.

The DG NAFDAC listed the following as reasons for export rejects: Technical Barrier issues e.g., defective packaging and inadequate labelling. Non-Documentation, Unauthorised transition, Illegal importation, Non-compliance to destination markets’ standards, the EU will reject consignments containing food that do not comply with EU maximum residue limits (MRLs) for Vet Medicine and Pesticides, and maximum limits (MLs) for Contaminants in foods.

Others include exporters’ boycott of relevant regulatory Agency e.g., NAFDAC, in the process of exportation, which leads to rejects, private huge losses and absence of government-to-government communications.

Prof. Adeyeye however maintained that tightening the regulatory and inspection regime for exports of food items and agricultural products is one of the ways to address export rejections, adding that all relevant Government Agencies and associations involved in Nigerian exports should ensure agro products exported are safe, of good quality and meet the specified International Standards.

“When all other relevant efforts are merged, we can achieve the reduction of reject on Nigerian export food commodities and increase foreign exchange earnings,” she said.