NAFDAC cries out over ‘severe manpower shortage’

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised concerns over what I’d said is a severe staffing challenges, which it says are hindering its ability to effectively safeguard public health in Nigeria.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Thursday to outline the agency’s focus for 2025, NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, described the agency’s current workforce as grossly inadequate.

“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,” Adeyeye explained.

“For a country of our size and population, we are supposed to have nothing less than 10,000 staff. We currently have about 2,000. We burn candles on both ends, overstress ourselves because we have to safeguard the health of Nigerians,” she said.

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While acknowledging the impracticality of immediately reaching the required 10,000 personnel, Adeyeye urged the government to increase NAFDAC’s workforce significantly. “We are not asking for 10,000 staff now; we are just asking for double or triple what we currently have,” she said.

Despite these challenges, Adeyeye outlined five strategic pillars that NAFDAC will prioritize in 2025 to enhance its regulatory oversight and protect public health.

“These pillars include strong governance and leadership, maternal, newborn, and child health, the institutionalisation of best practices, the safety and quality of regulated products, and monitoring of the supply chain,” she said.

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