Fidelis David in Akure
The Institute of Public Analysts of Nigeria, (IPAN) yesterday said lack of government funding of analytic laboratories has been responsible for rejection of Nigeria’s export produce.
IPAN Chairman of Council, Prof Olugbenga Ogunmoyela, stated this while speaking in Akure, the Ondo State capital, during the group’s 30th Mandatory Continuous Professional Development (MCPD) Workshop for its members, with the theme: ‘Laboratory Analysis: A Necessary Quality Assurance Measures for Acceptance of Agro-Allied Products’.
Ogunmoyela, who said the development was a major contributor to the high rate of rejection of most consumer goods from Nigeria and Africa extraction, called on relevant authorities and analysts to wake up to its responsibilities.
He said: “The continent of Africa contributes less than nine percent to the global laboratory activities, and this is one of the reasons you begin to see that various rejected products come from the African region because even the nine percent we are talking about are actually owned by laboratories that are offshore and they carry out activities for us here.
“If we are going to reverse that trend, we must begin to encourage the significant roles for the laboratory sector in Nigeria.
“This is really a call for IPAN members in this part of the country and beyond to begin to think of ways by which we could take a rightful place in the economy because global competitiveness of laboratories is going to be the way by which we would avoid international rejection of products that we have.”
In his keynote address, the Vice Chancellor, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Prof Edward Olanipekun, tasked the government to subsidise the procurement of the necessary equipment and facilities or provide finance incentives so that agro-allied products for export from Nigeria could attract premium prices at their destinations.
He said: “There wouldn’t have been a better time to hold this workshop other than now when our country is facing serious economic challenges. Development of our agro-allied industries is critical in diversifying and revamping the ailing monolithic economy of our country, which is 85-90 percent oil- and gas-dependent. Our economy, which was largely dependent on agriculture in the 60s and early 70s, suddenly became hydrocarbon-dependent at the detriment of the agriculture and other non-oil sectors of the economy.”
Declaring the event open, the Ondo State Governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), represented by his Chief of Staff, Olugbenga Ale, said the choice of the state was apt, noting that the state and the country stand to generate local and foreign revenues from agro-allied products, like cocoa which Ondo State is producing in large quantity, and number one highest producer in the country.
Ondo State Head of Service (HOS), Mr. Kayode Ogundele, and the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Olayato Aribo, said a careful perusal of the mandate of the Institute and digging into its past and the present activities show that it has maintained a high standard it is known for, which includes organising relevant and impactful mandatory continuous professional development for its members, scientists and general public, examining and registration of public analysts, training and regulating the practice of public analysts and analytical laboratories in Nigeria.
