The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has today revealed that the agency is extremely under-staffed. The Director-General, DG of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known today during a news conference organised in Lagos to outline the agency’s focus for 2025.
According to her, “The number of staff that an agency has or should have depends on the population of the country because it is easier to regulate a country with one million than a country with 300 million people.
She added, “I’m just giving an example based on our population; we are supposed to have nothing less than 10,000 staff; we have about 2,000 right now.
“We burn candles on both ends, overstress ourselves because we have to safeguard the health of Nigerians.
“We are not asking for 10,000 staff now; we are just asking for double or triple what we currently have,” she said.
She, however, unveiled her New Year agenda that the agency would focus on five strategic pillars to further safeguard the nation’s health.
Adeyeye noted that strong governance and leadership, maternal, newborn, and child health, the institutionalisation of best practices, safety and quality of regulated products, and monitoring of the supply chain would form her New Year resolution.
She said: “Reflection on the past seven years has brought into focus the many accomplishments that have been achieved in NAFDAC and so many others to be attained.
“This realisation has sharpened my focus on how to strategically work towards continued strengthening of the regulatory system as a needed path toward safeguarding the health of the nation.”
She added that her agency, NAFDAC will continue to unlock the value chain through strengthening the industry without losing focus on the access to quality and regulated products to Nigerians.
She explained that strong governance and leadership is a motivating factor that ensures that workforce stays highly motivated and disciplined, while training remains a premium for staff.
While emphasising the agency determination to pay more attention to the safety and quality of regulated products for maternal, newborn, she said child health and nutrition would not be left behind.
The DG said her target would help to prevent postpartum haemorrhage and maternal deaths and drastically reduce child morbidity in the country.
“Great emphasis will be placed on paediatric antimalarials and antibiotics.
“Manufacturers will be incentivised to develop paediatric medicines and handheld toward achieving WHO prequalification,” she said. (NAN)
