Consultants Are Duping MSMEs,’ NAFDAC Warns, Reveals Product Registration Fee

Consultants Are Duping MSMEs,’ NAFDAC Warns, Reveals Product Registration Fee

The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mojisola Adeyeye, has warned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) against using third-party consultants for product registration, saying many of them defraud business owners despite the agency’s affordable registration fees.

Speaking during an interview with Channels Television’s Programme Sunrise Daily on Thursday, Prof. Adeyeye stressed that NAFDAC is committed to supporting businesses and promoting trade, insisting that the agency is “a partner of traders.”

She revealed that NAFDAC charges MSMEs as little as ₦35,000 to register products and has deliberately kept its tariffs unchanged since 2020 to ease the burden on small businesses.

“We have not reviewed our tariff since 2020 because we want to make sure that the economic downturn has improved,” she said.

Adeyeye, however, lamented that many entrepreneurs unknowingly pay huge sums to consultants who exploit them.

“If an MSME goes to a consultant, the consultant will dupe them. There have been a lot of cases where consultants dupe MSMEs,” she warned.

The NAFDAC boss said the agency also subsidises laboratory testing for MSMEs to ensure they can certify their products without high costs.

Responding to complaints about delays in obtaining NAFDAC approval, she explained that laboratory analysis and factory inspections cannot be rushed because they are critical to guaranteeing product safety.

She added that the agency’s manpower shortage remains a major challenge.

“We are 240 million people, and we have 2,000 staff. Indonesia, with 280 million people, has 20,000 staff,” she said.

Adeyeye also highlighted NAFDAC’s efforts to strengthen local manufacturing through its 5+5 policy, introduced in 2019, which requires importers of pharmaceutical products that can be produced locally to begin local manufacturing or partner with Nigerian manufacturers within five years.

According to her, the policy has cut imports in the affected categories by 70 per cent, helping to revive Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry.

She disclosed that the agency is developing a similar policy for the food sector to encourage more local production and reduce dependence on imports.

Reaffirming NAFDAC’s commitment to businesses, Adeyeye said the agency has digitised its registration process to improve efficiency while maintaining strict standards to ensure only safe products reach Nigerian consumers.