NAFDAC  DG meets Indian professional forum

… explains new e-Regulatory process

L-R: Mr. Subbu Ramesh, Head of Consular – High Commission of India, Mr. Jagdeep Kapoor, Head of Chancery – High Commission of India, Mrs. Yetunde Oluremi Oni, Ag. NAFDAC and Mr. Kailash Kumar Gaggar, Executive Committee member, IPF at the event.

The e-Regulatory registration process of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was brought into focus at the weekend as a non–profit association of Indian professionals under the aegis of Indian Professionals Forum (IPF) working and operating in Nigeria, hosted the agency’s Acting Director General, Mrs Yetunde Oluremi Oni to throw some light on the procedure.

The meeting with the theme “Creating an enabling e-Regulatory environment in NAFDAC – a panacea to ease of doing business,”  which held at the Indian High Commission in Lagos  featured the DG and her team of top NAFDAC management staff who were invited to a dialogue with eminent Indian expatriate professionals from Indian companies/corporations based in the country.

In her submission, the acting NAFDAC DG enthused that with the agency’s e-regulatory environment, people can now comfortably start the process of registration of their products from the comfort of their offices or home.

“We’ve reviewed our processes and ensured that we are creating an enabling e-regulatory environment, a panacea to doing business where in the confines of your office or your house you can begin your registration process, and do everything on the e-platform, and then come over and just submit.

“By so doing we are able to shorten our processes and procedures and with e-NAF, also turning up timely result of analysis and with the Good Manufacturing Practice, GMP, inspection report satisfactory, we are able to review all documents and be able to grant marketing authorization within 90 to 120 days.”

Speaking on the new application introduced by the agency, Mrs. Oni said:  “The app is also one of the tools that we are deploying because when you register a product, it has a lifespan of either one year, two years, or five years depending on the class of the product and it is expected that you come and renew when the license expires.”

She however, noted that with that App, they will be alerted in their office when a particular product will expire. “We get that alert and we write to company to begin the process of registration so that there is no lacuna and there is no gap where your product expires and you don’t renew and then you come over to renew and you are having issues, which may seem as a violation,” she said.

IPF members and representatives of the Indian High Commission in a group picture with the NAFDAC delegates at the end of the dialogue.

Speaking to journalists at the end of the interaction,  IPF executive committee member, Kailash Kumar Gaggar said the Indian community was glad to have the NAFDAC boss and her team in their midst and commended Mrs Oni for accepting IPF’s  invitation.  He disclosed that the topic of discussion was well presented by the NAFDAC team “with lots of valuable data/information about NAFDAC  and the Industry.”

“It truly reflects the forward looking approach of NAFDAC management team in re-engineering the internal systems for greater transparency and quicker delivery without compromising the Vision & Mission of NAFDAC. The members and guest greatly benefited from this interactive session and we would like more of such programs in near future,” he said.

Commenting on the activities of the association Gaggar said: “The association operates from Indian High Commission, Lagos and is managed by an elected executive committee. Member’s base includes reputed companies/corporations based in Nigeria and highly placed Indian Expatriate Professionals.”