Operators of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country are groaning about the recent hike in the new fees for registration, laboratory analysis, change of company’s name and ‘package size extension’, among others, imposed by the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently.
“NAFDAC increased their fees without consulting any business stakeholders. Some of the new fees went as high as 600 percent and more,” Femi Egbesola, national president, Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON), said.
“For us as operators, this is untimely and unsupportive for small businesses. If the hike is allowed to stay, it will impact SMEs negatively as many will be forced to close shop and lots of jobs will be lost,” Egbesola said.
He stated that the move would lead to price hike in the regulated products by NAFDAC and support an increased entry of fake and substandard products into the Nigerian market.
He called on the Federal Government to intervene in the issue by asking the regulator to reverse the fees.
BusinessDay investigation found that registration fee for bakery has risen from N31, 750 to N89, 750, indicating a 90 percent increase. Similarly, cost of registration form has gone up from N250 is now N2, 500.
Also, product registration fee, which was N73,500, is now N147,000, indicating a 100percent increase, while change in pack design is now N84,000 as against N10,500 few weeks ago. Moreover, cost of change of product name has risen from N21,000 to N84,000 .
Oluwakemi Ajiboye, founder of Crystal Shine Skin Clinic, in a statement made available to BusinessDay, said that the move by NAFDAC is a corrosive approach in building the economy.
“With this new rate, a handful of legally registered small-scale manufacturers will resort to non-compliance in order to remain in business,” Ajiboye said.
“Mr President, Mr Vice President and DG of NAFDAC, allow us in the SME manufacturing sector to salvage what is left of this economy. Do not throttle us,” she pleaded.
Nura Musa, public relations officer of the Association of Master Bakers of Nigeria (AMBN), Abuja chapter, appealed to the Federal Government and NAFDAC to review the fees in order to help small businesses remain in business.
In a response to BusinessDay questions on why the fees were suddenly increased without due consultations with stakeholders, Mojisola Adeyeye, director general of NAFDAC, said that the decision was made by the regulator’s governing council and that there will be a meeting this week to further revisit the issue.
In an exclusive interview with BusinessDay on October 2018, Adeyeye had said NAFDAC was reviewing its traffic, which was the lowest in the West African region to generate more revenue.
“The government does not support us as such. They give us support for salaries but they do not support us as you would think in terms of infrastructure— whether it is equipment, building, vehicle or anything else,” she had said.
“We have to generate our own Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which is why we need money from tariffs and the other administrative things that we do,” she had added.
Josephine Okojie
