Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has outlined the agency’s focus for 2025, which will revolve around five key pillars to guide its operations.
She disclosed this during a news conference on Thursday in Lagos, where NAFDAC presented its priorities for the coming year.
Adeyeye explained that these strategic pillars will help NAFDAC fulfill its mandate to ensure the safety, efficacy, and quality of food, drugs, and other regulated products in Nigeria.
Five pillars of focus
According to her, the pillars include strong governance and leadership, maternal, newborn, and child health, institutionalization of best practices, safety and quality of regulated products, and monitoring of the supply chain.
Reflecting on her seven-year tenure, Adeyeye said, “These years have brought into focus the many accomplishments achieved in NAFDAC and so many others yet to be attained. This realization 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.”
Strengthening the Industry
According to her, NAFDAC will focus on unlocking the value chain by strengthening the industry and ensuring access to quality regulated products.
She noted that strong governance and leadership would play a crucial role in keeping the agency’s workforce highly motivated and disciplined, with staff training remaining a top priority.
Improving maternal and child health
The DG emphasized the agency’s commitment to enhancing the safety and quality of regulated products, particularly for maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition. She explained that this approach would help prevent postpartum haemorrhage, reduce maternal deaths, and significantly lower child morbidity.
“Great emphasis will be placed on paediatric antimalarials and antibiotics,” she said. “Manufacturers will be incentivised to develop paediatric medicines and handheld toward achieving WHO prequalification.”
Tackling staffing challenges
Adeyeye pointed out that the agency is severely understaffed.
“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 explained.
She highlighted the gap, saying, “Based on our population, we are supposed to have nothing less than 10,000 staff. However, we currently have about 2,000.
“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 added.
