…Can Now Produce Vaccine
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has been recognised as a maturity three regulatory agency by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Nigeria is the third African country to achieve this rank, and one of the few in the world.
The NAFDAC Director General, Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, made the announcement at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday. With this, we will be able to manufacture our own vaccines, and the process has already begun with the construction of a vaccine laboratory in Oshodi, Lagos.
She stated that none of this would have been possible without President Muhammadu Buhari’s outstanding support, who generously donated 736 million to equip our laboratories.
Her words,” When I came on board, 70 to 80 per cent of our laboratories equipment were not working and President Buhari intervened and gave us seven hundred and thirty six million (736 million) to equip our laboratories.
” President Buhari also gave us four billion to buy more equipments and build vaccine laboratory which is almost completed. it is the tools that earn us this, and I thanks president Muhammadu Buhari for his kind gestures.
“We are already working on Maturity Level four which will enable any products we approved as a regulatory agency to be traded globally.
Since we don’t produce, the pharmacistical companies that produce will have a larger market
” There is no fear on our side getting certification for maturity four because we have our template and we have have been recertified by WHO since 2019, once we get recertified by November this year, we start self auditing, which is going to keep us on our toes. This has to be sustained because they will be coming every three years”, she said.
Meanwhile, the Chairman , NAFDAC Governing Board, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman said this feat cannot be possible without the support of the government and the hard work of the DG and staff of NAFDAC.
According to him, “The certification to Maturity level 3 by WHO is an indication that NAFDAC is well functioning and global agency.
“We gave ourself target, to cross the last huddle , I made a commitment that the DG see us through maturity level four , once we get to this level, everything we approved will get global acceptability”, he hinted.
