The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has received funding from the Skills Development Fund (SDF) of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to develop a Quality Supervisory training and certification programme curriculum for food, herbal, cosmetics, and household chemical industries.

The grant is to develop a curriculum, which would eliminate the incidents of manufacture and sale of unwholesome products and related regulatory sanctions and penalties; delays in acquisition of facility license and product registration from FDA.

Mrs Delese Darko, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the FDA said presence of a qualified supervisors would be a key pre-requisite for the licensing of a manufacturing facility in compliance to FDA guidelines and the Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851).

At a ceremony to sign the contract for the funds, the CEO said by developing a curriculum, the Authority would effectively ensure safety of herbal, cosmetics, and household chemicals in accordance with Sections 106 and 115 of the Act 851.

She said Certified Qualified Supervisors in the sectors of the regulatory space would ensure the safety of FDA regulated products to protect public health and safety, which would in turn, promote the growth and development of the micro, small and medium scale sectors of the food, herbal, and cosmetics products.

Mrs Darko said the training and certification curricula would be developed through collaboration between the FDA, QA Consult Limited (QA), Accra Technical University (ATU), and funded under an SDF grant applied for by the FDA.

She said the curriculum, which would be four different types shall cover each product group in the Act; thus food, herbal, cosmetics, and household chemicals.

She said QA Consult would develop the curriculum in line with TVET requirements overseen and approved by ATU, adding that the focus shall be on a training and a certification programme that delivers the technical skills required to ensure best product quality practices in industry.

Mrs Darko said the duration for the programme was expected to last for about six months, adding that the curriculum development would start immediately would be ready to be rolled in the ATU within the next few months.

She commended the SDF for providing the grant to develop the curriculum in collaboration with collaborators in the project, adding that, the FDA would offer every needed technical expertise to ensure the successful development of the curriculum.

Mr Ebenezer Ato Simpson, the Fund Manager of the SDF said the Fund was delighted to provide the grant for curriculum development through the FDA because there had been a number of applications from small business asking for support to be certified by the FDA.

He said the numerous applications received showed that there was no content in the various application, hence the need to support the FDA to develop the curriculum for the right content needed by one to apply for the Authority’s certification.

He said it would help in ensuring a uniform production of goods and services in the country, adding that, the Fund was of the firm conviction that if all players in the industry practice to a certain standard, it would help protect the health and safety of consumers.

Mr Simpson said when the curriculum is fully developed within the next six months, the Fund would go ahead to offer grants to enterprises to buy the services to improve the uptake of the programme to ensure the safety of consumers across sectors.