In a bid to enhance the fight against illicit drugs abuse in the country, the new Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Abuse Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Monisola Christianah Adeyeye has mapped out five years strategic goals to achieve between 2023 to 2028.
Recall that Prof. Adeyeye was reappointed as DG of NAFDAC by President Muhammadu Buhari few days ago for another five years tenure.
Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, Prof. Adeyeye said “the agency will focus on governance, financial management and Publicity, which implies continuation of meaningful deployment use of human capital.
“Sustain Strong Governance Expansion of Directorates for greater and impactful management, obtain approval of Hazard and Regulatory Allowance (to be funded from NAFDAC Generated User Fees) , Secure approval of Scheme and Condition of Service , Sustain Strong Financial Management Continuity and Consolidation Ensure well-trained staff on SAP Account Software.
“Increase IGR and User Fees by 20 per cent from the current levels based on availability of more infrastructure and tools stated with more accountability.”
She emphasised on publicity that continues use of additional media outlets to disseminate noteworthy NAFDAC’s activities. As initiated in October 2022 by deploying Social Media Staff to DGs Office, Use of Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.
“Use of drama and comedy artists to convey importance of quality, safe, efficacious, and wholesome regulated productsand to make the Media parley more structured.”
On the new initiatives, the NAFDAC boss revealed that the agency is geared towards attaining of the World Health Organization (WHO) Maturity Level 4 (ML4) thereby seeking the collaboration of other sister agencies.
She listed some of the steps as “to attain WHO ML4 and World Listed Authority (WLA) Status it will be enable by Global trade of Nigerian-made pharmaceuticals through collaborative registration with other regulatory agencies, Local Pharma manufacturers to be more competitive in AfCTA.
“Attain Vaccine Lot Release ML4 to position Nigeria strategically for vaccine manufacturing, Ensures Good Manufacturing Practice of Nigeria Vaccine Company, Assures quality, safety and efficacy of vaccines manufactured in Nigeria or imported.
“Establish Vaccine Clinical Trial Research and Service Pipeline for the Local Manufacturer, Create Office of Womens Health Office, understudy drug, cosmetics, and food products that affect women, the unborn and the child, emphasize misuse or abuse of drug among women and impact on the child, more focus on maternal and child mortality and morbidity rate.”
According to her, the newer Initiatives will be based on Supply Chain Monitoring, Continual sanitization of the Supply Chain Units to mitigate counterfeits and SFs.
Scale up Track and Trace of Imported and locally Manufactured Pharmaceuticals, establish Structured and Active Tracking and Tracing through Solution Providers, Initiate Track and Trace of Foods. Continual vigilance to Reduce SFs, Counterfeit Medicines, and Narcotics, Enhancing Local Manufacturing (including Vaccines) Quality and Trade.
Others are training on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) Regulation, Develop NAFDAC-Industry API Manufacturing.