The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), has emphasized the need for the provision of safe and nutritious food for Nigerians in order to reduce illness and deaths in the country.
Mr ‘Laoye Jaiyeola, Chief Executive Officer of NESG, who spoke at an expert forum to discuss the National Food Safety and Quality Bill 2022, said food borne infections, which cause many illnesses and deaths each year and have adverse economic effects in both developing and developed countries, can be reduced by increasing the provision of safe and nutritious food.
According to him,adequate food safety and quality control system would provide sustainable support to the food producer or exporter and help assure consumers of the quality and safety of both local and imported food products.
He said: “Prior to the Russia Ukraine war, food insecurity was of serious global concern, and following the war, food availability has become a much more serious problem. How can we ensure that the food we consume is good enough?”
He noted that the expert forum was a public-private dialogue that will further help to fine-tune and harmonise the Food Safety and Quality Bill (2022), while also helping to provide short to medium-term recommendations to government, private sector and other stakeholders in the ecosystem to help accelerate sustainable growth and development in Nigeria’s food and agricultural ecosystem.
Speaking on the “overview of the food safety control environment,” facilitator, NESG Agriculture and Food Security Policy Commission, Ms. Gloria Ekpo, said Nigeria has a significant bacteria food borne disease problem that contributes to the country’s morbidity and mortality rates.
Ekpo stated that Nigeria’s food safety control environment is burdened with several issues, including poor agricultural practices, abuse of agrochemicals, and lack of complete farm gate surveillance systems.
She noted that the policy gaps in Nigeria’s food safety system shows that legislation is fragmented, and ineffective partnerships amongst stakeholders which result in duplicity of functions.
She added that the food sector is affected by the issues of administrative gaps, including a low number of food inspectors, inadequate knowledge of food manufacturing practices, poor and weak enforcement frameworks and socio-economic gaps such as religion, traditional belief systems, poverty and poor sensitisation.
