The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has revealed that over 70% of Nigerian foods exported abroad are rejected.

This was disclosed by the director general of NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye during the commissioning of the new NAFDAC office complex for the Murtala Muhammed International Airport/NAHCO in Lagos.

Mrs. Mojisola disclosed that the high rate of rejection of Nigerian foods exported, is accruing huge losses for the country, considering the huge amount of money spent to export those products.

She further added that the deplorable state of export trade facilitation for regulated products leaving the country has remained a serious concern for the agency while noting that the rejection rate could decline if collaboration between NAFDAC and other government agencies at the ports is strengthened.

In her words,

“Over 70 percent of the products that leave our ports get rejected. Considering the money spent on getting those products out of the country, it is a double loss for both the exporter and the country.

“The mandate to safeguard the health of the populace by ensuring that food, medicines, cosmetics, medical devices, chemicals, and packaged water are safe, efficacious, and of the right quality in an economy that is overwhelmingly dependent on the importation of the bulk of its finished products and raw materials could never have been actualized without the effective presence of NAFDAC at the ports and land borders.

“Without customs, we will not be able to do a lot of what we have been able to do. The collaboration between Customs and NAFDAC is huge. NAFDAC is a complex organization. We are scientific. We are police and we work with the Department of State Services. We work with Interpol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation because of the few unscrupulous stakeholders”.

Mrs. Mojisola commended the Nigerian police for their efforts, noting that they played a pivotal role in investigations, raids, and enforcement.

To save Nigeria’s reputation in International commerce, the NAFDAC boss disclosed that the agency is responding to the challenge by collaborating with the agencies at the ports, to ensure that goods meet the regulatory requirements of the importing countries and destinations.

She also urged all stakeholders in export trade to see this issue as a call to duty to collaborate with the agency to ensure that the rejection of Nigerian foods exported abroad is reduced drastically.

It is however worth noting that the rejection of Nigeria’s agricultural exports in the international market has continued to linger for a long time with no end in view.

Last year, NAFDAC expressed concerns over 76 percent of Nigeria’s exported agricultural commodities that were rejected by the EU for not meeting required standards. Also in January last year, the Shippers Association of Lagos (SALS) stated that 82 per cent of the country’s exported agro-allied products are either seized or rejected in Europe.

Various reasons have been adduced for the rejection of Nigerian exported goods, especially agricultural produce in the international market, ranging from standardisation limitations, unapproved chemical compositions in produce, and low quality among others. 

Following the challenging issue, the federal government had over the years expressed its commitment to tackling the rejection crisis, but meanwhile, the challenge persists.