The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has condemned the antics of unscrupulous importers of food grade ethanol (alcohol) who in attempt to evade the proper payment of tariffs on absolute alcohol denature it to pay lower tariffs.
The agency’s Director-General, Dr. Paul Orhii who described the practice as potentially harmful said the importers denature the alcohol with any substance which can cause health problems.
Orhii made this charge while receiving the Executive Secretary of the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Mr. Lateef Busari who led his management team on a courtesy visit to the agency as part of efforts of engaging relevant stakeholders in the implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Master plan (NSMP).
The NAFDAC boss argued that if Nigeria was producing its own alcohol locally, it would be cheaper, cleaner, free of contaminants and easy to regulate and use in the food industry.
He said: “Local development of sugar will solve a big problem for Nigeria in the area of food especially in the production of ethanol. This is because one of the problems we are facing as a regulatory agency is the issue of ethanol fraud.”
He added: “We are all for the development of local sugar industry. For us, we want to ensure that sugar is adequately fortified with Vitamin A. We are in total support for the implementation of this master plan.”
The Director – General commended the sugar council on its concerted efforts to self – sufficiency in local production of sugar describing the yearly over N240billion spent on importation of the product as ridiculous and unacceptable.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of NSDC said his agency has been meeting with relevant agencies that are critical to the success and implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Master plan, citing NAFDAC as one of the agencies that have proved effective in actualizing this goal.
Mr. Busari said the goals of the master plan included total sugar production to 1.79MMT, ethanol production to 161.2 million litres, electricity generation to 400MW and employment generation of about 117, 000.
He further said that the implementation of the master plan has been on for 19 months and listed the successes recorded so far to include aggregate pipeline investment commitment of US$3.1 billion in 2013, with the Dangote Group accounting for US$2 billion of the investment commitment.
Mr. Busari listed other achievements to include development in 17 project sites across nine states, creation of 2,640 new jobs in 2013 and the initiation of a Management Fund Agreement (MFA) with Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture to create funding facilities for the industry.
He however said that continuous importation of sugar in retail pack sizes despite ban whilst the availability of several local alternatives that are better packaged, has been an impediment to the implementation of the plan.
While commending the Dr. Orhii for his visionary and effective leadership in transforming NAFDAC, Mr. Busari solicited for the agency’s support by providing similar leadership in addressing some of the problems identified in implementation of the National Sugar Master plan.
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