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The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has placed a ban on importation of foreign beans into the country, noting that no beans would be allowed into Nigeria through any of her boarders except those screened by the agency.
The screening, according to the agency, is in line with measures to ensure safety of the products being imported into the country.
Mrs. Yetunde Oni, Acting Director General of the Agency, disclosed the development at the awareness/Sensitization Workshop on Safe and Responsible use of Regulated Agricultural inputs for Stakeholders in the North Central Zone in Minna.
She said, “We must recall that these banned beans produce that have been banned in the European Union (EU) are those ones that never passed through NAFDAC.
“All the beans that passed through NAFDAC and issued EU certification do not get rejected. The ones that have been banned are those ones that never passed through NAFDAC”.
Oni stressed the need for all relevant agencies to be awake to their responsibilities by working hand in hand with the Agency to actualize this objective.
“It is not entirely the function of NAFDAC, but the primary assignment of the quarantine which is under the Ministry of Agriculture to look into beans because it is an agricultural produce.
“Beans is an agricultural produce, as opposed to a semi or fully processed regulated product under the purview of NAFDAC and such products are food, drugs, medical devices, chemicals, packaged water and detergents. These are the ones that are under our purview.
“But because we have seen that the beans is a raw material into a final product that is regulated by NAFDAC, we are now talking of collaboration with one another so that all relevant stakeholders will join hands towards a common goal of ensuring that only good quality regulated products are available for consumption, for sales, distribution, advertisement, information and importation into the country,” the acting NAFDAC boss said.
By Patrick Aigbokhan
