… 10 firms shut as CEOs face prosecution
Many bottled water manufacturers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, now prefer to evade inspection and registration by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and 10 of them have been shut down and their CEOs arrested.
BusinessDay gathered that many of them operate underground and cut prices to steal the table water market to the chagrin of those playing by the rule. Both NAFDAC and the table water association have set out to clamp down on the illegal operators.
NAFDAC carries out factory inspection when a firm is starting and comes to inspect the production process at what officials called moderate fee. Insiders say it not more than N35,000, yet many prefer to evade this.
In such a renewed bid to permanently stamp out illegal production of sachet water, NAFDAC shut down 10 alleged substandard and unregistered sachet water factories in Port Harcourt metropolis.
The operation also led to the arrest of four persons (names withheld) and impounding of four buses, three sachet water packaging machines, rolls of films and three generator sets used in the business.
The Rivers state coordinator of NAFDAC; Mercy Ndukwe, an assistant director, said the operation was aimed at sanitising the chaotic sachet water business in the state.
She said that in as much as NAFDAC encourages small-scale producers and entrepreneurship, she could not compromise standards. She said that “in course of this operation we discovered that some licensed sachet waters are no longer been operated by their original owners; they have sold off their franchise to someone else who in turn set up a substandard factory without consulting NAFDAC and with absolute disregard to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).
“This is a continuous exercise that will be sustained until the sachet water business in the state is sanitized and clandestine producers uprooted, those that could not meet up to standard are advised to look for other businesses to do,” Ndukwe said.
The state coordinator said that the agency would not relent until all the substandard and unregistered premises are dismantled, warning that tough time awaits all illegal producers of packaged water in the state as NAFDAC has put strategies in place to frustrate their unwholesome activities.
The operation was carried out in Diobu, Bundu Water side, NTA Road, Iwofe, Rumuolumini, ELeperanwa, Ada George and Eagle Island.
The affected sachet waters were either being operated in poor facility or with fictitious NAFDAC number. The State coordinator encouraged those desirous of doing genuine business to come to NAFDAC office and be guided appropriately, urging the public to always report any suspected illegal production of NAFDAC regulated product, affirming the zero tolerance posture of the agency for fake and unwholesome products.
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