NAFDAC impounds N32bn fake products in 30 months

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has impounded over N32bn worth of fake food and drugs in the last 30 months, its Director-General, Dr. Paul Orhii, has said. 

Orhii said that this was achieved through the various approaches developed by the agency to sanitise the system in the last few years.

He spoke to our correspondent in Lagos on Wednesday.

The director-general added that the country, through improved technological approach, collaboration with security agencies and raiding, had been recognised as the leader in the area of law enforcement on food and drugs. 

“The United States recently gave this recommendation on our success stories, using Lagos as a case study of an environment, where the incidence of fake drugs and products has gone really low,” he said. 

He had also recently affirmed in a statement that the mission of the agency to safeguard the health of the nation would be enhanced by the implementation of the e-clearance system for clearing regulated products. 

According to him, the process of clearing regulated products will now be automated and will involve on-line declaration and verification of the details of importation, including online assessment and payment of clearing charges for NAFDAC-regulated products. 

He explained that the agency had worked tirelessly to ensure that the processes for the clearing of imported products were automated to reduce the clearance time for products at the ports. 

“The deployment of new technology, including the use of the Raman hand-held spectrometer for on-the-spot identification of counterfeit products, among others, were notable achievements that had improved NAFDAC’s clearing processes at the ports and land borders,” he added. 

He also noted that the agency had been integrated into the government’s Single Window Trade Portal, alongside the Nigeria Customs Service and other government agencies involved in the clearance of imports into the country. 

Orhii revealed that the agency had been provided with some network infrastructure to connect to the Nigeria Integrated Custom Information System for electronic interaction with them. 

According to him, the purpose is to reduce the clearing time for NAFDAC-regulated products.