The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has intensified efforts to ensure that there is an improvement in the quality of packaging and labeling of Nigerian products.
Poor packaging in particular is said to be one of the main reasons why Nigerian products are rejected in the international market, especially in Europe.
Speaking at the NEPC-organized Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) technical session in Abuja on Wednesday, Dr. EZra Yakusak expressed confidence that the program will boost the country’s export capacity.
“Today marks the launch of a series of intervention sessions on packaging and labeling organized by the NEPC. It is a reaffirmation of the Council’s commitment to facilitating the efforts of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to overcome the challenges posed by Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and in particular export packaging and labeling.
“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today’s program has been carefully designed to enable product evaluation, transfer of technical packaging and labeling skills, a unique opportunity for exporting SMEs to receive practical solutions and an action plan for each of your products.
“You will remember that earlier this year, specifically on March 8, 2023, the Council organized an exhibition of products made in Nigeria to mark International Women’s Day 2023.
“The event provided us with the rare opportunity to celebrate Nigerian women exporters and businesswomen who are distinguishing themselves in the non-oil export space.”
She explained that, “during an inspection of the exhibited products, we saw the ingenuity and innovation of our Women in the development of products for export.
“The exhibition also revealed some inherent deficiencies in our products, including poor or inappropriate packaging resulting from incorrect cushioning materials, mismatched sizes, misbranding, incorrect labeling, incorrect or illegible graphics, trademark infringement, lack of barcodes etc Basically, these failures could be attributed to a lack of knowledge about proper packaging and ignorance of the packaging and labeling requirements of importing countries, among others.
“Realizing that obtaining the required knowledge remains a Herculean task for our Women’s SMEs, I promised them that the Council will intervene in the areas of packaging and labeling.”
Yakusak pointed out that “today is the fulfillment of that promise. Therefore, this program has been designed or structured to close the knowledge gap, accelerate compliance, enhance product competitiveness and achieve sustainable market access in Nigerian traditional and emerging markets.
“The Council has deliberately chosen experts in the field of packaging and labeling to facilitate the technical sessions of this workshop. They will impart the necessary knowledge through hands-on action-learning demonstration techniques,” he said.
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