The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and
Control (NAFDAC) says “cabals” at the Nigerian ports are behind the influx of
fake and substandard drugs into the country.
Mojisola Adeyeye, director-general of NAFDAC, spoke on
Thursday when she appeared before the House of Representatives committee on
healthcare services.
Adeyeye said the cabal was formed when the agency was
removed from the ports between 2011 and 2016.
“Let us look at our porous borders, we are surrounded by six countries and there is no guard in terms of regulation of the border,” she said.
“From 2011 to May
2016, NAFDAC was removed from the ports. We are supposed to be controlling and
regulating what is imported or exported; seven years and cabals were formed.
“We cannot undo the cabals overnight and this is why it has
been extremely challenging in the last three and a half years. The federal task
force is domiciled in NAFDAC and we are putting a lot of monies on enforcement.
“We went straight into the heart of the problem which is
China and India. Before, there were loopholes in terms of testing products that
come into our country.
“We have pegged that
and decreased significantly the number of fake products coming into the
country, over 95 percent of products we import are from China and India.
“We read them the riot act and we have gotten so much
success in terms of things coming in.
“However, we still have a lot of work to do, a regulatory
agency has to use tools, it is vehicles that we will use to run after drug
smugglers.”
Adeyeye said the agency needs more personnel at the borders
to curb the importation of fake drugs into the country.
Tanko Sununu, chairman of the committee, asked NAFDAC to
embark on nationwide market surveillance to tackle fake drugs.
“When last did NAFDAC carry out mark surveillance nationwide…
2012 is too long, NAFDAC has the right to walk into any shop, pick any product
and subject it to study,” he said.
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