No fewer than 601 Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) have been registered by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in South-East Nigeria.

Mr Venatus Ihekire, NAFDAC’s Assistant Director, Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said this on Thursday in Enugu while delivering a lecture titled: “MSME Registration and Ease of Doing Business.”

Ihekire delivered the lecture during the monthly meeting of heads of Federal Government establishments in Enugu.

He said the registration of the MSME products started in March 2018 till June 2019.

The director noted that the registration covered products from the five states of the South-East, which included: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.

He added that “we have started MSME products’ registration in the zones since 2018 in furtherance of the Presidential Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business (EODB), which NAFDAC is a key agency that drives the order.

“Under the period under review, which is between March 2018 and June 2019, we registered 601 MSME products from the five states in the South-East.

“These products range from sachet and table water, rice products, bread products, confectionaries, local snacks, honey, spices, liquid soap, car wash, as well as processed and packaged farm produce.

“The bulk of the registration came from the water business, especially those that came to seek for re-registration.”

According to him, the turnout of number of products passing NAFDAC’s verification and registration has been encouraging within the zone.

Ihekire said NAFDAC had reduced the cost of product registration by 50 per cent, as well as streamlined registration and removed all bottlenecks in the exercise.

He said it was now possible to get NAFDAC registration and product’s NAFDAC number within 60 days of application.

He noted that “today, products’ registration has been

decentralised at the zones. NAFDAC has stopped consulted registration.

“Products which require same production facilities are now permitted to share facilities to cut cost of production and encourage more entrepreneurs.” (NAN)

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