Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has raised alarm over the agency’s acute staffing crisis, saying it is severely under-resourced to effectively oversee the safety of goods consumed by Nigeria’s more than 240 million citizens.
Speaking during a Thursday interview on Channels Television, Adeyeye highlighted the glaring disparity in regulatory capacity.
Nigeria operates with roughly 2,000 NAFDAC staff, while Indonesia a comparable nation with about 280 million people has around 20,000 regulatory personnel.
“We have been chronically short of staff in NAFDAC. We are 240 million people and we have 2,000 staff,” she stated. “That is the gap that we have been discussing in terms of closing.”
The NAFDAC boss clarified that the agency is not seeking to match Indonesia’s numbers but urgently needs at least 5,000 additional staff to strengthen operations across the country.
She noted that the current workforce is stretched thin, limiting the agency’s ability to maintain a physical presence nationwide despite its broad mandate.
“We cannot be everywhere. We are stretched thin. We are doing the very best we can do,” Adeyeye added.
Beyond staffing, she called for better funding for the Federal Task Force established under the C34 Bill of 2004 to support enforcement.
The task force, which collaborates with state-level units, has reportedly received no financial backing since its inception.
Adeyeye expressed optimism that the Federal Government, following engagements with the Minister of Finance, would address both the manpower and funding gaps to bolster NAFDAC’s effectiveness.
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