The Director General of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, has revealed that the agency does not have a specialised chemical laboratory.
She said this in a speech delivered at a workshop on Chemical Security and Vulnerability Assessment, Mitigation, and Chemical Industry Outreach for Chemical Industry Professionals in Nigeria.
The DG described the absence of a specialized chemical laboratory as one of the challenges and limitations confronting the Agency.
She said: “Some of these include inadequate training of the Agency’s officers on chemical safety and security, absence of , underfunding that has limited the acquisition of on-the-spot monitoring equipment, system for biometric data capture and operational vehicles for wider coverage and industry monitoring.”
The workshop was organised by the United States Department of State’s Chemical Security Program (CSP) in collaboration with their implementing partner, Oak ridge National Laboratories (ORNL) and NAFDAC. It was aimed at providing deeper understanding of security risk assessment and security systems.
According to the DG, the use of chemicals has increased geometrically in the past years in Nigeria, raising issues of misuse and hence concerns for chemical safety and security threats.
“This has placed a remarkable focus on the need for improved collaboration, capacity building, and enforcement with corresponding effective and efficient regulations to achieve the desired outcome,” she said.
She also revealed that NAFDAC has returned to Nigeria’s Ports and Borders, allowing the agency to achieve heightened regulatory alertness, diligence and control of importation of regulated products.
“It is our expectation that the industry on its own should try its best on self-regulations thereby making the job of regulations easier for the Agency,” she said.
