By Goddie Ofose
Senior Correspondent, Lagos
Stakeholders across integrated marketing communication have frowned at the incessant cash related sanctions meted out to operators in manufacturing, telecommunication and financial industry by regulators.
They described is as “eye-service”.
Guinness Nigeria became the latest victim when National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) disclosed recently through a letter that the company has been asked to pay N1 billion over alleged infractions relating to the destruction and re-validation of expired raw materials without prior approval.
Before now, MTN Nigeria was fined N1.04 trillion by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) for failing to cut off over five million lines which could not be traced to no one.
First Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and Stanbic IBTC were also made to taste the same bitter pill by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).
All these sanctions carry financial burden.
Resourcery Managing Director, Tani Fafunwa, warned that the action of the NCC portends grave danger to foreign direct investment.
“I have analysed the situation but come to a conclusion that no regulatory body that wishes the growth of that sector would fine a particular organisation 120 per cent of its profit,” he added.
While commending regulators for coming out of their slumber to confront the large corporates, a PR expert, Frank Jegede, said all is not well with regulation in Nigeria. For him, it is pure “eye-service” to curry favour with the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Agencies sleeping and snoring
Until Buhari came on board, most government regulatory bodies were snoring away. For instance, most Nigerians never knew there is an agency called FRC. But it became a household recently when it sanctioned ‘powerful’ financial institutions.
While the hammer of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fell on Skye Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and UBA for failing to comply with the directive on treasury single account (TSA), FRC requested the CBN to investigate Stanbic IBTC and KPMG professional services for financial misstatements.
Consumers in the fast moving consumer goods segment have been living on the mercy of substandard goods. Millions of fake drugs flood the market space yet there is a government agency called NAFDAC.
NAFDAC had become tame after the tenure of its late Director General, and Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili.
The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is helpless. Millions of substandard mobile phones, substandard motor parts, fake electrical appliances and many other commodities compete for space with Nigerians at home and work.
The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) is almost nonexistent as it battles paucity of funds to run day to day operations.
Waking from slumber
The last time the CBN publicly sanctioned an operator was during Lamido Sanusi’s era as governor. Since then, the apex bank has gone quiet only to reemerge recently to sanction First Bank and UBA.
FRC that has been comatose has suddenly found its voice and to bear its fang, the government agency came down hard on Stanbic IBTC and KPMG.
The NCC may not have been as quiet as some of its peers but the MTN fine has taken the agency status to the next level.
Fafunwa described the fine is insensitive.
NAFDAC which has been in a cooler for the past decade suddenly realised that Guinness Nigeria erred in its product revalidation.
However, in 2008, Unilever Nigeria’s CloseUp failed raw material test and the brand was only asked to withdraw the affected batch from the market.
Guinness reiterates commitment to quality
Guinness reaffirmed its commitment to continuously deliver quality products through application of the highest standards of good manufacturing practice after it was hit by NAFDAC.
The over-riding objective, according to its Managing Director, Peter Ndegwa, is to avail customers of world-class products and value for money.
“In so doing,” he added, Guinness will continue to maintain and improve the quality and efficiency that it has established in over 60 years of operations in Nigeria.
“We take our responsibility to deliver quality products seriously.
“The meticulous and painstaking work, including rigorous quality assurance that precedes the final production of all our products, has a singular objective: to ensure that our consumers drink products that are healthy and comparable with similar products made by a Diageo facility anywhere else in the world.”
Ndegwa said the company’s conformity to the highest standards of quality has enabled the repeated re-certification of its products and procedures the International Standards Organisation (ISO), NAFDAC, and SON.
The company received the ISO 9002:1994 quality standard in 2001 becoming the first brewery in West Africa to be so honoured.
Guinness Corporate Relations Director, Sesan Sobowale, acknowledged the receipt of a letter from NAFDAC.
He said the alleged infractions relate to a rented off-site warehouse where raw materials are stored, and the store is not a production facility and the quality of its products was never an issue.
“NAFDAC insists that its authorisation is required before we can carry out the destruction of expired raw matetials or indeed in the process of approval of new best before date by the manufacturers of these raw materials and we were in the process of engaging NAFDAC for clarifications and resolution of the issues before the private correspondence from NAFDAC to Guinness Nigeria was clandestinely passed to the media,” Sobowale stressed.