The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has urged local manufacturers of cosmetics and household chemical substances to register with the Authority.
The Authority has over the years had challenges with product registration due to financial challenges that start-ups face, and the inherent difficulties in meeting regulatory requirements prior to market authorization.
As part of efforts to tackle this problem, the Authority has put in place some measures to make it easier for Small and Medium Scale enterprises to legalize their business and products.
The Head of the Cosmetics and Household Chemicals Department of the Authority, Emmanuel Nkrumah, in an interview with Citi Business News stated that, “We would have to get more locally manufactured products on our markets to the best of our ability. How do we do that? We’ve reviewed our forms. During the stakeholder interaction and engagement, we got feedback from our stakeholders that the forms are too complicated. What can be done? If that is what the stakeholders are saying, then it’s something to have a second look at. So we’ve reviewed our forms to become simpler than it used to be.”
“…And we also have a different approach with regards to how we meet and engage our clients. Now we have a very efficient and reliable client service that is monitored on a daily basis. And we also gave a very good fee schedule. Now the fee for locally manufactured products is in categories. We have the small, medium and large scale. The fee for small scale businesses is GH¢300 per product. And in some instances, we even group them and put one or two products together and charge GH¢300, which is about GH¢100 per year. That comes to about GH¢8.30 a month, which amounts to nothing.”
The Food and Drug Authority is mandated by the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851) to regulate food, drugs, food supplements, herbal and homeopathic medicines, veterinary medicines, cosmetics, medical devices, household chemical substances, tobacco and tobacco products as well as clinical trials.
In an earlier statement, it said that it had “recognized the financial challenges associated with start-up business projects and the inherent difficulties in meeting regulatory requirements prior to market authorization”.
It has thus “outlined a number of measures to address the various industry growth-enabling provisions available to small and medium scale enterprises in Ghana”.
According to them, these new measures are in support of various government initiatives like the One District, One Factory (1D1F), and other small-scale industries.
