The Western Regional office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has held Nine Lessons and Carols Service to mark this year’s Christmas celebration.
In an address, Mr Abu Sumaila, the Western Regional Head of the FDA, said the office was able to carry out all its scheduled inspections and post-market surveillance activities within all the Districts in the Western Region as well as the Western North Region, where it has oversight responsibility.
He said although 2021 had been a challenging year for the Authority due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, God had been good to them as the target for the year was about 95 per cent achieved.
Touching on some of the achievements in the year under review, he said, the year 2021 began with the plan of relocating the office to a convenient place, which was achieved in no time.
It also trained over 400 herbal practitioners in basic good manufacturing practices (GMP) with the hope of bringing them to compliance.
The Directorate was also able to train close to 100 sachet water manufacturers to improve upon their production while public education programmes and market surveillance brought a reduction in the sale of unwholesome products on the market.
He added that their efforts brought an increase in voluntary submission of applications for safe disposal of damaged and unwholesome products, following the intensive public education it undertook.
It also secured office space at Sefwi-Wiawso in the Western North Region, hoping to be operational by the first quarter of 2022.
Mr Sumaila attributed the success chalked to the hard work, dedicated service and teamwork exhibited by the staff.
He expressed the hope that the staff would maintain and improve upon it going into 2022.
Mr Sumaila commended the staff for their efforts and further commended all stakeholders, especially the media for supporting the Authority in the conduct of its activities in the Regions.
However, he said a sampling of palm oil on the market revealed that some traders were selling adulterated “Sudan dye” which was a setback to the Authority since it was unfamiliar with the Region.
He pointed out that if the practice continued the Authority would have no choice but to blacklist the market in question to deter people from buying from it, which may not augur well for the traders.
The Regional Head announced that going into next year, his office would focus on food vending on the streets even though it had been the mandate of the District Assemblies.
He said his office would collaborate with the Assemblies to do Street Food Vending Licensing for public safety.
Rev Seth Williams, the Regional Accountant of the FDA, and also the Head Pastor of the Nazareth Methodist Church, Nkotompo, in a short exhortation, said the gathering was a reminder of God’s gift of love, to the world for divine salvation.
He noted that “fornication, corruption and social vices have taken the centre-stage of the Ghanaian society and for that matter, if Ghanaians were celebrating the birth of Christ, then they should remember that Christ was born so that the world would be reconciled to God,”
“As we celebrate Christmas, we should be reminded that Christ might come at any moment or we may even lose our lives.
“Therefore, we must strive to live a godly life as we accept the gift of God, which is Christ into our lives”, Rev Williams emphasized.