LAGOS, Nigeria(VOICE OF NAIJA)- The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has launched a volunteer pharmacist programme to strengthen medicine regulation and improve the fight against falsified and substandard drugs across Nigeria.
Launched to improve public health protection, NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said the programme brought together pharmacists from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, covering the country’s six geopolitical zones.
After inaugurating the programme and administering the oath of allegiance to the volunteers, Adeyeye explained that the pharmacists were selected based on merit, availability and geographical representation.
According to her, the programme is not an internship or attachment but a deliberate investment in Nigeria’s future regulatory workforce.
The volunteers who are already pursuing careers in different fields will receive training in key areas of medicines regulation, including pharmacovigilance, compliance monitoring, quality assurance, data collection and public education on drug abuse.
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The NAFDAC chief stated that the initiative would also create a national pool of trained pharmacists who could be called upon when urgent regulatory support is needed.
She noted that the volunteers could assist NAFDAC during medicine recalls, investigations involving suspected falsified drugs and emergencies in hard-to-reach communities.
Adeyeye stressed that her goal was to establish a standing pool of trained, vetted and readily deployable pharmacists in every state.
She explained that the pharmacists would work alongside NAFDAC state offices to extend regulatory activities beyond laboratories and ports of entry to markets, community pharmacies, patent medicine stores and primary healthcare centres.
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During a stakeholder engagement with members of the Patent Medicine Dealers Association in Ogbete, Enugu, Adeyeye called for improved storage and distribution practices among medicine dealers to protect Nigerians from unsafe medicines.
The agency sensitized traders on Good Storage and Distribution Practices.
The NAFDAC boss, represented at the engagement by NAFDAC’s South-East Zonal Director, Festus Ukadike, urged medicine dealers to buy their products only from legitimate manufacturers, registered importers and authorised distribution channels.
She warned that the manufacture, importation, distribution or sale of counterfeit and substandard medicines posed a serious danger to public health.
Ultimately, the agency cautioned traders against engaging in such activities, stressing that offenders face severe regulatory sanctions.
