The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has announced that it has reduced processing fees for the renewal of registration for locally manufactured products by 65 per cent to N44,200.

According to News Agency of Nigeria, the Director-General of the agency, Mojisola Adeyeye disclosed in a statement issued by NAFDAC media consultant, Olusayo Akintola, in Abuja.

Adeyeye stated that this was part of measures to assist Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in coping with the current economic challenges

“The agency had reviewed downward, the present administrative charges for late renewal of NAFDAC-regulated products to make the business environment more investment-friendly in a quick response to the realities of the time. This translates to a 65 per cent decrease in processing fees for the renewal of registration for locally manufactured products (which will be N44,200).

“This is against what is currently charged and 45 per cent of the processing fee for foreign products (which will be $450) as against what is currently charged,” Adeyeye said.

The NAFDAC boss added that the agency had also granted a 10 per cent review of tariff structure for facility and inspection fees for Special Economic Zones as businesses across the world confront the disruptions caused by the global economic meltdown.

She said, “NAFDAC will continue to adopt and implement practical measures to ensure that the projected growth in the MSMEs sector is not seriously affected by the development.”

According to a report jointly released by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria and the National Bureau of Statistics, about 39.6 million MSMEs were operating in the country as of December 2020.