The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has vowed that vaccines produced in Nigeria including those for COVID-19, will be of internationally acceptable standard.
Mojisola Adeyeye, director general of the Agency made the pledge during the oversight visit to the NAFDAC facilities and COVID-19 laboratory projects in Lagos on Friday August 26, 2022, by the House of Representatives Committee on COVID-19.
She described the federal government’s “huge spending” on the fight against COVID-19 as exemplified by the construction of the new COVID-19 laboratory, equipped with modern instruments and amenities at the Agency as a wake-up call for the country.
She noted with dismay that the health sector had hitherto been neglected before the present administration responded through the COVID-19 Committees of the National Assembly.
To ensure that the health sector is strengthened, the NAFDAC boss, in a statement signed on Sunday by the Agency’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, pointed out that the regulatory Agency must be strengthened.
‘’If the regulatory agency is not strengthened, the industry will not be strengthened,’’ she said, adding; ‘’we have the African Free trade Agreement already here with us now for the nation’s pharmaceutical industry to take advantage of with quality products.’’
Read also: South Africa, India, EU, US reach compromise on COVID vaccine IP waiver
“There will be a lot of competition and if NAFDAC’s laboratory is not strengthened, we will not be able to compete. For Vaccine, we are hoping that the vaccine facilities from the public- private partnership will soon happen’’, warning that ‘’but if the regulatory agency is not strong, we can make vaccine that will destroy our own people’’ she added.
With the World Health Organisation (WHO) Maturity Level 3 certification, Adeyeye enthused that ‘’Nigeria can now make her own vaccines and we can assure the populace that there is quality in whatever is being manufactured because of NAFDAC’s strength’’.
On the impact that COVID-19 fund has made, she said this should resonate well with the whole country that if you put the right people in the right places, then the vison of the government can be realized.
‘’Whatever approvals that are being given by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on funding our activities, you can actually touch such and this is what has happened here today’’, Adeyeye told the visiting lawmakers.
Speaking in the same vein, chairman, house committee on COVID-19, ) Haruna Mshelia commended the DG NAFDAC and her management team for leveraging on latest technology to upgrade the Agency to a standard that is next to none in Africa.
‘’We have seen with our eyes how they have leveraged on latest technology to upgrade the organization to a standard that is next to none in Africa. I think they need to be commended. We have seen the warehouse. We have now seen the laboratory which is under construction. They have gone very far, and the standard of the construction is good’’, he said.
