The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) reports that during a statewide crackdown, its agents have confiscated more than N1 trillion worth of medical supplies that banned, expired, and substandard medical products in a nationwide crackdown.
During the exercise, 11,000 stores were also shut, according to NAFDAC Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, who briefed State House media in Abuja on Wednesday.
“What we are currently underestimating is a figure of N1 trillion. Yes, that’s N1 trillion,” Adeyeye said.
“This might be an underestimation for now, but once we complete the operation, we will have a clearer understanding of how these drugs are entering our country.
“They came into the country through borders, and like I often say, it takes a village to raise a child. It doesn’t take only NAFDAC and the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) to ensure that we have sanity in our drug distribution or we mitigate some standard falsified medicines.”
According to Adeyeye, the investigation conducted in the last few weeks has discovered male condoms and antiretroviral medications given by the United Nations Population Fund and USAID that had been repackaged for sale after expiring.
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Stricter penalties, such as life in jail or the death penalty, are required for counterfeit drug sellers, according to the NAFDAC DG.
She said the agency plans to relocate open drug markets to coordinated wholesale centres within a year.
She further mentioned that NAFDAC has launched a broad enforcement campaign in the last few days throughout the three main open drug markets in the nation: Onitsha, Aba, and Lagos.
Adeyeye said the 87 truckloads of drugs confiscated were the biggest in the agency’s history, noting that the operation was executed in Ariaria and Eziukwu markets (Aba), Bridgehead Market (Onitsha), and Idumota drug market (Lagos).
She said the exercise is part of NAFDAC’s national action plan (NAP 2.0) 2023-2027, aimed at eliminating counterfeit medicines, improving regulatory compliance, and safeguarding public health.
