The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it will partner with South-East governors to improve productivity and create industrial hubs in the zone.
The new South-East Zonal Director of NAFDAC, Mr Martins Iluyomade, revealed this on Thursday during a Media Parley with Journalists in Enugu.
He noted that the Southeast remains the economic heartbeat of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Nigeria.
According to him, Lagos is good but in terms of economic output, South-East is supposed to be the China of Nigeria.
He described the people of the zone as very industrious, very innovative, very hardworking, and highly business-minded people.
“My mission is to help harness all those potentials, to make sure that we can produce what cannot only be used locally by getting NAFDAC approval but also things we can export,t and this will lead to economic growth for our country.
“As South-East governors are forming a socio-economic bloc with their several meetings to create lasting peace and generate socio-economic activities; we will partner with the governors on some programs to create industrial hubs for the people of the zone.
“I want to assure you that if that initiative is properly done, China will come and learn from us in the South-East.
“We will send them our proposal as we are ready to assist them when they are setting up factories that will produce original products to create employment opportunities for the people,” he said.
Iluyomade, however, appealed to production companies to always produce standard and safe products according to NAFDAC regulatory guidelines.
He said: “We are ready to partner with production companies in the South-East to produce standard products that everybody can use.
“For those people with the brain to manufacture imitation products, the same brain can be used to produce original and genuine products.
“My job is to assist them to transit from imitation to original because they have a brain to do it.”