The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control on Thursday said the agency is extremely under-staffed.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this at 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.
“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, stated that going into the year, it would focus on five strategic pillars to further safeguard the nation’s health.
Adeyeye listed the pillars as 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.
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.”
According to her, NAFDAC will continue to unlock the value chain through strengthening the industry with a focus on access to quality regulated products.
She said that strong governance and leadership would ensure that its workforce stays highly motivated and disciplined, while training remains a premium for staff.
The DG emphasised that the agency would pay more attention to the safety and quality of regulated products for maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition.
She said this would help to prevent postpartum haemorrhage and maternal deaths and drastically reduce child morbidity.
“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.
