The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has shut down on a private rice factory in Niger State over unhygienic practice.

Speaking during a routine inspection of facilities in Niger State, the Director, North-Central Zone of NAFDAC, Shaba Mohammed, pointed out that though the facility was registered with the agency, the production environment was unhygienic and without good manufacturing practice.

“The rice processing facility has been sealed and given compliance directives for not complying with the instant regulations for which they were given to produce and certification. The place is unhygienic and they are not doing production according to good manufacturing practice,” he said.

The director added that the agency also discovered that some key workers employed by the company were not knowledgeable in areas of production.

Meanwhile, Mohammed has urged small and medium enterprises to take advantage of the Automated Product Administration and Monitoring System, an e-registration and data capture system that provides an online electronic medium for the application for products registration with NAFDAC.

He said NAPAMS would ease their interface with the agency and called on the general public to report anything that could endanger lives to the agency.