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Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye (middle) flanked by other NAFDAC officials during the press briefing at the agency’s corporate head office, in Isolo, Lagos, on Wednesday.
NAFDAC has announced that sweeping reforms carried out over the past seven years have fortified Nigeria’s public health system, curbed the menace of falsified medicines, and propelled the country into the ranks of respected global drug regulators.
Disclosing this at a media briefing on Wednesday was the Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye.
Adeyeye declared that the transformation, launched in 2018, was driven by stronger leadership, improved legal frameworks, quality management systems, and extensive digitalisation of regulatory processes.
A landmark achievement came in 2022, when Nigeria attained the World Health Organisation’s Global Benchmarking Tool Maturity Level 3 for medicines regulation. This was followed by a successful re-benchmarking in 2025, making NAFDAC the first regulatory authority in Africa to achieve the milestone twice. In the same year, Nigeria was admitted as the 24th member of the International Council for Harmonisation, cementing its place in the global regulatory arena.
Prof. Adeyeye highlighted the dramatic impact of the reforms on maternal health, noting that substandard oxytocin, once rampant at 70 percent, was reduced to just 7 percent by 2021, through intensified surveillance and enforcement.
She further disclosed that nationwide crackdowns on open drug markets led to the seizure and destruction of falsified and substandard medicines valued at over N1 trillion, as NAFDAC adopted a risk-based, intelligence-driven enforcement strategy.
Digitalisation has been central to the transformation. Platforms for product registration, clinical trial approvals, laboratory testing, port inspections, and post-market surveillance have streamlined operations, improved transparency, and strengthened traceability. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a digital track-and-trace system enabled nationwide monitoring of vaccine distribution and interception of compromised batches.
The reforms have also boosted local pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing through initiatives such as the 5plus5 policy and the Ceiling List, reducing dependence on imports while encouraging domestic production, foreign investment, and technology transfer.
Food safety and chemical regulation have been reinforced with new rules on trans fats, pesticides, veterinary medicines, and high-alcohol-content sachets, as NAFDAC positions itself to target WHO Maturity Level 4 status.
Prof. Adeyeye stressed that Nigeria’s growing influence in global regulatory governance now allows the country to share expertise, participate in international standard setting, and attract partnerships in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and chemical safety. She emphasised that sustained investment in people, laboratories, infrastructure, and technology remains critical to safeguarding public health.
NAFDAC has also intensified public education campaigns on drug safety, proper storage of medicines, and responsible consumption of food and alcohol products, aiming to prevent harm from substandard or falsified products.
On traditional and herbal medicines, Adeyeye confirmed that NAFDAC regulates herbal products through a two-stage approval process and is collaborating with the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) to conduct clinical trials on selected remedies, with the goal of developing a national formulary of scientifically validated herbal medicines.
“The agency is now collaborating with the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) to conduct clinical trials on selected herbal remedies, with the aim of developing a national formulary of scientifically validated herbal medicines,” she added.
