There is a saying on the street now that you get a school certificate to either be employed or be an employer of labour. The economic situation of the country for some years now has warranted everyone to think about being an entrepreneur rather than look for jobs.
If an aspiring entrepreneur eventually gets a ‘small change’ to start something on his own, he has to contend with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the body saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that Nigerians get value for their money.
Unfortunately, it seems this regulatory body is not really encouraging entrepreneurship, going by what many of them are going through, all in the name of getting a NAFDAC registration number.
The problem is basically administrative. According to a sachet and table water producer on the outskirts of Lagos, he has to shuttle between Oshodi and Abeokuta office of NAFDAC.
“It is unbelievable that (NAFDAC) staff at the Abeokuta office still rely solely on paper files. So much time is wasted in looking for files which could be missing or misplaced. It is like they have never heard about computerisation,” he revealed.
Thus, renewal is usually more cumbersome than the initial registration. “I was tempted not to go back for renewal, which is two years for sachet water and five years for table water. If your file is ‘misplaced’, you will need to ‘shake body’ or you start processing all over again,” he said.
