The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has declared its intent to leverage the level three status it has achieved from the World Health Organization to ensure that at least ninety nine percent of unregulated food supplements and drugs in the country meet the Authority’s standards.
Acting Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the FDA, Joseph Binny, revealed at the maiden edition of the Ghana Premier Business and Finance Excellence Awards that the Authority is working assiduously to ensure that all foods and drugs on the market are wholesome by 2023.
“There are lot of court cases now that are being prosecuted, the police like I said and the attorney general’s department [are] helping us to do the prosecution, and then we also as an institution are also applying the administrative charges to ensure that people fall in line with what the law demands.
“Going forward we want to assure Ghanaians that there will be a time when you will walk into any facility, you are most likely to find out that about ninety nine percent of the goods that are regulated have been really regulated and you can safely walk out and ensure that whatever you purchased is regulated”.
A keynote address read on behalf of the Minister of Business Development made a strong case for more private sector contribution to the economy.
“If you look at the Asian miracle that has become or that took the world by storm, it was done in consultation or in collaboration with the private sector. As I alluded in my introductory remarks, no nation can do it without a private sector.
“For any government that decides to neglect it will do that at his own peril”.
The FDA’s level three regulatory status attained makes Ghana one of only two countries in Africa and the 52nd in the world to attain such high profile rank.
The award was instituted to recognize business and finance houses which have made outstanding contributions to the development of the country.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Food Industrial Support Services Department at the FDA, Ebenezer Kofi Essel, has outlined measures the Authority plans to undertake in anticipation of the arrival of myriads of goods preceding and during the festive season.
With this, the Authority has assured to intensify its presence and surveillance activities at the ports and markets to prevent the imports and sale of fake or unregulated products into the country.
“During this same time that these purchases are going up, we also have a situation where some unscrupulous people will also take advantage of the situation and would want to exploit unsuspecting consumers. So there are a lot of activities that we carry out. We become more vigilant, not in the sense of the scope of work we do, but we’ll throw in more officers to the front, either at the ports or markets. So you’ll have your control at the ports and your presence felt at the markets trying to check what is on sale and try to take appropriate steps to ensure that the products are safe for consumption. But most importantly, we intensify our public education.”
Mr. Essel further cautioned holiday revelers and patrons to be extra cautious when making purchases.
“In the years past, we realize that there was a trend where most of the rice dealers were buying old rice bags and pour out old stocks of rice into these bags to make them look very new, stitch it up, and put them up for sale at a very cheap price. We’re not saying that people will reduce prices of products during this time. But you should also be very careful that when you see the prices of certain commodities reduced very low, you should be suspicious of what you’re buying. The other thing too is that if you go ahead to do the purchases, make sure that you’re able to read what is on the packages”.
