The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has suspended the recent hike in fees rate for registration, lab analysis, change of company’s name and package size extension, among others, which it imposed on operators of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). This was after it was reported last Monday by BusinessDay.
The suspension came after members of the NAFDAC governing council board met to deliberate more about the issue.
A document seen by BusinessDay and signed by Mojisola Adeyeye, director general of NAFDAC, stated that the observations by various stakeholders in the sector on the new tariff hike has been reviewed and the regulator’s governing council has agreed to suspend the tariffs pending engagement with stakeholders on the issue.
“The council in a meeting yesterday (on Wednesday) considered the observations from stakeholders and agreed to meet with them over the issue with a view to reviewing the tariffs,” Adeyeye said in the statement.
“Meanwhile the approved tariffs have been suspended pending the outcome of the meeting with stakeholders,” she added.
BusinessDay had on Monday reported the complaints of various operators of small business in the country over the new increases in fees.
All of them spoken to said NAFDAC did not engage them before increasing the tariffs by over 600 percent in some of the items.
Reacting to the suspension, Femi Egbesola, national president, Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON), said that SMEs are happy with NAFDAC over the suspension of the new tariffs.
“If government does anything that really will impact negatively on us as citizens and business operators, either in a sector or collectively, we all must come together to fight a common cause, without fear or favour, with which much really and truly can be achieved,” Egbesola said.
“That is what we have done with the recent hike and now the regulators are willing to engage us in reviewing the tariffs,” he added.
Josephine Okojie
