Business
Firm Tasks Agric Stakeholders On Policies
Synergos Nigeria, a global non-profit organisation, has called for stakeholders’ commitment in the formulation and implementation of agricultural policies to enhance the nation’s food security.
The Country Director of Synergos, Mr Adewale Ajadi, made the call in Abuja on Friday at a meeting of the recently constituted Federal and State Policy Alignment Committee.
Ajadi, who was represented by Mrs Vivienne Bamgboye, a Senior Manager in Synergos, urged the committee members to redouble their efforts to establish a viable coordination platform for actors in the agricultural sector.
He said that the meeting was an opportunity for the committee members to know the challenges facing farmers in the states and proffer solutions to them.
“The meeting is very important in the sense that we will get to hear what is happening in the states and understand what the state representatives are witnessing.
“This will help with what we call a project cycle in which information and real-time experiences are fed back to the key policymakers, who can now use them to form policies.
“We are at a time in our nation where policymaking is no longer an abstract activity that is completely detached from the key stakeholders,’’ he said.
Ajadi said that Nigeria was now beginning to understand the value of data, information and experiences which could guide policy formulation processes.
“What is the experience in terms of that policy to the immediate environment?
“The policy is there to achieve a set goal. We will now check whether the policy has been achieved or causing more harm.
“These are some of the things we want to realise from this meeting we are having today.
“I, therefore, urge you to put your heads together in order to achieve the goals for which the committee was set up: to move the agricultural sector forward,’’ he said.
The Tide source reports that the 25-member consultative committee was inaugurated on December 1, 2017, to facilitate the alignment of federal and state policies in the agricultural sector.
This is to avoid duplication of efforts, which according to observers, is a critical challenge facing development issues in the country.
The committee is also expected to facilitate the knowledge of the benefits of mutual exchange and reinforcement in executing government policies.
Business
NAFDAC Decries Circulation Of Prohibited Food Items In markets …….Orders Vendors’ Immediate Cessation Of Dealings With Products
Importers, market traders, and supermarket operators have therefore, been directed to immediately cease all dealings in these items and to notify their supply chain partners to halt transactions involving prohibited products.
The agency emphasized that failure to comply will attract strict enforcement measures, including seizure and destruction of goods, suspension or revocation of operational licences, and prosecution under relevant laws.
The statement said “The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised an alarm over the growing incidence of smuggling, sale, and distribution of regulated food products such as pasta, noodles, sugar, and tomato paste currently found in markets across the country.
“These products are expressly listed on the Federal Government’s Customs Prohibition List and are not permitted for importation”.
NAFDAC also called on other government bodies, including the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service(NIS) Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigeria Shippers Council, and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), to collaborate in enforcing the ban on these unsafe products.
