By John Okoh, Lagos
Owners of Small Medium and Enterprises in Lagos have accused the National Foods and Drug Administration Control, NAFDAC, of frustration their businesses with bad practices.
The small business man and women who participated in a recent one-day seminar organized by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce of Industry in Ikeja, Lagos stated that they have always faced challenges of high fees, multiple and delayed registration as well as tips that officials of the organization often demand before attending to them.
“For me, I have always experienced slow staff response to my queries and they at times charge fees that are not stated in initial transactions. In fact as I speak, I have just been called from the office that something I paid seven thousand for has increased to N53,000,” said Mr Nohoesu Abiodun, the Managing Director of Brebio Investment Limited, a shipping and freighting company, adding, “then there is the issue of multi-registration and double handling of the same job already passed by the Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON. Then after these two organizations, you still have to face the Customs. With all them combined, it is hard for SMEs to succeed. All officers of these agencies are salaried people, they do not know what we go through”.
For Mrs Victoria Obadina, a businesswoman and an ex-chairman of the SME group of the LCCI, the renewal of licenses has been a major source of headache since 2017. “Warehouse inspection used to be every ten years but now it is every two years. To get NAFDAC officials to come, you have to give money or else it is wahala”.
Harping on a similar challenge, Ms Olajumoke Olayiwola queried why a company must pay for analyses test ranging from N24,000 daily on the basis of products rather than as a company. Ms Oluwole Olayinka of Skyphinic Ltd, an agro-processing company was equally supportive of the commentaries.
Boiling with rage when it was his turn to speak, Mr Ben Adekagina of Benifade and Associates accused the NAFDAC of frustrating his water business from taking off on time because of delayed registration, which gave his competitors a head start.
Responding, Mrs Veronica Ezeh, Deputy Director One Stop Investment Center, NAFDAC, who had listened with studied attention, said some of the viewpoints were exaggerated.
She charged the SMEs to always take pains to make use of an SME help desk, which was specifically created in anticipation of challenges they may face, though she admitted, “there are still things to fine-tune about the desk.”
“As for warehouse inspection, it is five years and product renewal is two years. Renewal does not stop your company from producing unless you have serious issues with us. Issues of fees are often misunderstood. We have tariffs, not taxes and they are for lab analyses and work. To even assist SMEs, we have dedicated labs for them so that they do not stand alone.”
In the area of registration, Ezeh who represented the Acting Director General, Mrs Yetunde Oni, however had a strong advice for SMEs.
She said, “Registration is usually on three levels. The first is documentation, which includes CAC documents, plan name from the Ministry of Industry and completed NAFDAC registration form. Pay the fees and then go ahead for lab tests, warehouse inspection, which will take 90 days. But I strongly advice that you pay N10,000 for NAFDAC advice before you go ahead to rent an apartment”
She however got an ovation when she said, “you should make sure any officer you are paying to is a staff and has an ID card.”
