MAKURDI – Benue State Gov. Gabriel Suswam said the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had performed beyond the expectations of Nigerians.
Suswam said this on Thursday in Makurdi while declaring open a one-day Awareness/Sensitisation Workshop to Promote Export of Semi-processed and Processed NAFDAC Regulated Products in the North Central.
He said that the performance of NAFDAC had surpassed the expectations of many Nigerians who felt that the agency could not attain international recognition within a short period of time.
He said that the agency had forced the North central to re-discover their lost agricultural potentials by promoting export of value added agricultural products for economic purposes.
He commended the agency for providing an enabling environment for four Nigerian pharmaceutical companies to obtain World Health Organisation (WHO) license to export its product to abroad.
In an address, Dr Paul Orhii, Director-General of NAFDAC, said the zone had great potentials in export commodities that would boost the nation’s economy. [eap_ad_2] Orhii said the people should embrace agriculture for the purpose of improving the economic fortunes of the country.
He disclosed that the agency’s Pesticides and Mycotoxin Laboratories were given accreditation by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) for the testing of pesticides and mycotoxins.
He explained that the accreditation would increase consumers’ confidence and international acceptance of products exported from Nigeria.
He also said that the accreditation had improved revenue and speedy evaluation of regulated products for national and international markets.
Orhii said that the workshop would enlighten stakeholders on the regulatory requirements for export of NAFDAC regulated products in areas of production, processing and packaging of regulated products.
He said that the workshop would also provide the participants with the opportunity to discuss strategies that would ensure that Nigeria’s exports meet the standards of the importing countries. (NAN) [eap_ad_3]