The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) has assured companies that their registration licences are being processed.
The Director of North Central Zone of the agency, Mr Shaba Muhammed, said that the agency have addressed the issue of pending issuance of companies licence.
The director disclosed this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Friday on the sideline of his inspection tour to Kwara.
Muhammed said that the issue of pending licence had been addressed at the top management meeting.
He said that the NAFDAC director general had given an order that all the pending registration of the agency’s products should be completed within two weeks.
“All the states, zones and directors in NAFDAC are to make their submission latest by today, Friday.
“This is to ensure that the technical directorate that are concerned with registration of the products will conclude their work within another two weeks,” Muhammed said.
The director however warned that late renewal of licence attracts penalty and it is multiple of the amount of the registration.
He explained said that the penalty was aimed at encouraging companies to renew their certification licence before the expired day.
Mohammed however said that during his routine inspection tour, they usually organise training or hold meeting with stakeholders.
He stressed the importance of his visit, stating that the new State Coordinator, Mr Nadabo Nathan, was just deployed to Kwara.
“I will like to see the facilities and have meeting with some selected stakeholders on NAFDAC activities and look into their challenges to know how to address them.
“That is what we did today and the objective is to know their challenges with the state office and NAFDAC generally,” he said.
The director said that the inspection team was able to pay unscheduled visits to some companies in the state.
According to him, they inspected company facilities and their process of production, as well as access the area of production.
“Usually we pick a few companies among the list of registered companies under the state, which will not be known to them, in order to see the true picture of them.
“We visited two pharmaceutical companies and each of them have the standard certified factories.
“We also visited a food industry which possessed state of the earth equipment, and a water factory that produces bottle and sachet water and we met them in good working condition,” he said.