Activities of NAFADC North-East
The North-East(NE) NAFDAC Office supervises and coordinates NAFDAC activities in six (6) North-Eastern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe State. However, Yobe State has 2 additional offices at Potiskum and Gashua bringing the total number of offices in NEZ to 8.
In accordance with the Federal Government Executive Order on the Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria, and the Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, success in getting approval to elevate the status of the zonal offices to Directorates, the Zones is now led by a director.
The North-East NAFDAC office has a total of 3,466 facilities with Borno and Adamawa having the highest number of establishments. However, some of the facilities especially in the northern and some parts of southern Borno State as well as some parts of Yobe State are risky to access because of the Boko haram insurgency thereby limiting the number of our regulatory activities. Five (5) of the States are headed by Deputy Directors and One (1) i.e. Yobe state is headed by an Assistant Director. The creation of additional office at Potiskum and Gashua is aimed at taking Regulatory activities closer to Stakeholders operating in that region of Yobe state.
The state offices of NAFDAC in the North-East are structured to carry out all the functions of the Agency, except that of laboratory and legal services, at the local level. Therefore, the States conduct all regulatory activities for Food safety and Applied Nutrition, Post Market Surveillance, Pharmacovigilance, Drug Evaluation and Research (except for Human drugs whose inspections are currently (Centralized), Chemical Evaluation and Research, Veterinary Medicine & Allied Products, Ports Inspection, Narcotics and Controlled Substances- Directorates, Food R & R etc
The activities include.
- Registration of products whose registrations were decentralized by the Agency i.e. products categories under MSMEs product and the Renewal of water.
- Post Marketing Surveillance activities on all products (locally produced or imported) as the need arises.
- Pharmacovigilance activities.
- Routine inspection activities to ensure compliance.
- Sanctioning of violators of non-conforming facilities.
- Sensitization and Engagement of stakeholders.
- Advocacy visits for collaboration with other Agencies and other stakeholder for their support towards the fulfillment of the Agency’s mandate in North East.
The Operations of the NAFDAC in the Northeast are driven by the Agency quality policy and objectives in line with the Quality Management System (QMS) principles of the 9001:2015. The capacity of staff is continuously being developed through training and retraining for continual improvement in knowledge and service delivery. Following the DG’s directive to ensure an end-to-end registration of products on NAPAMS for efficiency in the registration process of the Agency both for zonal and central approvals, the zone has fully complied with that directive i.e. registration process is now an end-to-end on NAPAMS in the zone.
The zone is faced with some challenges like.
- Insecurity in the zone has remained a major source of challenge to our smooth operation.
- Insufficient quarterly budget allocation is affecting regulatory activity especially with the high cost of fueling cars and generators.
- Inadequacy of regulatory officers especially in Taraba state.
- Inadequacy of drivers especially in Adamawa state leading to the casual employment of the service of a driver.
- Lack of warehouse in states to keep items seized.
- Inadequate funding of public awareness campaigns across the zone.
- Absence of an Enforcement Unit in the zone
- Absence of a Public Affair’s unit in the zone
Despite the challenges faced there is an increment in the number of regulatory activity and revenue generation in the zone during the year 2023.
