Importers yet to adhere to Customs’ designation of Pharmaceuticals to certain ports - NAFDAC

Abiola Seun |

The National Agency For Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has expressed concern over refusal of importers to adhere to the directives of the Nigeria Customs Service on designation of pharmaceuticals to certain seaport.

This concern was raised by the Director General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye when she paid a courtesy visit on the Customs Area Controller of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) zone A, Ikeja last week.

The DG who also reiterated that the return of NAFDAC to seaports across the country to control importation of illicit and fake drugs into the country said different ports supposed to handle different commodities.

The DG said, “Different ports are supposed to be controlling different commodities.” She continued, “NAFDAC came back to the seaport on May, 16 2018 because I will never forget that day. I will never forget that day because of the destruction of seven years on our people. We are back to the port.”

Speaking on the designation of certain port for pharmaceuticals, the Director, Port Inspection, NAFDAC, Prof. Samson Adebayo said the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), had in 2019 designated different ports for certain commodities but importers are yet to adhere to it.

He said, “May 2019, there was a circular from the CGC that identified some ports for different products but the sad things is that you see that some Nigerian importers especially those who will leave nothing untouched to make money will declare falsely.

“They will declare building materials in other to move their cargoes to another terminal but we detect most of this through intelligence which reveals that what was declared as building materials are pharmaceuticals.”

The NAFDAC Director further acknowledged the support of the Customs Service to the agency saying it had help detect illicit drugs and fake pharmaceuticals imported into the country.

“I need to reiterate that except from the support we get from the Customs, some of the containers we intercepted wouldn’t have been possible because some of these cargoes were declared as plumbing materials but intelligence would tell us they aren’t but with their support so far, we have intercepted a lot.”

He stated further that report of the agency frustrating trade facilitation at the seaport is farther from the truth.

According to him, the agency is more concerned about the healthy wellbeing of the larger populace and won’t be distracted by antics of few.

“What we have seen in the newspapers is that NAFDAC is frustrating trade facilitation but, we need to do the right thing. We have our intelligence and 90% of the time our intelligence is right so what they will do is to say NAFDAC is frustrating trade facilitation but that’s not true but in addition to trade facilitation, safety of Nigerians is paramount to us and we will do what we need to do within our mandate,” he assured importers.