By Laudia Sawer
Tema, July 21, GNA – The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) has urged the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to digitalize the procedure of registering products being imported into the country to shorten the time for importers.
Mr Paul Kobina Mensah, the First Vice President of GIFF, speaking at a Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) media forum, said currently, importers had to go to the offices of the FDA to get the form, complete it, and send it physically.
Mr Mensah said, “I think the procedure should be electronic to make it more convenient,” he said, adding that the FDA must have a system that would be timely in the registration of products to favour both the FDA and the importers.
He stated that the situation on the ground pointed to the fact that the FDA could not register products within a day, a week or even within a month.
According to him, the fastest period the FDA could use to register the products was a month, adding that keeping the goods at the port to go through the registration process would lead to demurrage as well as high rent, taxes, and terminal charges.
“They should have a fast system of registration within a day or two because the importer is also going to buy from the market,” he noted.
He also expressed concern that the FDA had not sensitized importers enough about its ‘No Registration, No Importation’ policy.
Sections 99 and 118 of the Public Health Act 2012 (Act 851) prohibit the importation of unregistered products into Ghana. The FDA commenced the strict enforcement of the ‘No Registration, No Importation’ policy on February 1, 2021, with the aim of preventing the clearance of unregistered imports from the country’s ports.
Mr Joseph Yaw-Bernie, the Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at the FDA, said the policy was to ensure that regulated products, which included food, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and household chemical substances, met the criteria of safety, quality, and efficacy before importation into the country.
Mr Yaw-Bernie said products that were on the sea or on their way coming into the country had three weeks within which to initiate registration, adding that the FDA systems were available for importers to ensure that within three weeks before the products got into the country, they were registered to avoid offending the policy.
He explained that when unregistered products get into the country, they would be detained until they were registered, but unfortunately, the FDA lacked storage facilities.
“When this happens, the products are detained at the importer’s warehouse, but the importers take advantage of the situation and send the unregistered products into the market without going through the necessary procedures, thereby causing harm to the public,” he said.
He cautioned that the FDA would safely dispose of unregistered products imported into the country if importers failed to follow the procedure.
GNA