70% Drug Importation Unhealthy For Nigeria, NAFDAC Warns

Director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has decried Nigeria’s continuous dependence on other countries for drugs as about 70 per cent of drugs in the country are imported.
The DG, who stated this while fielding questions from journalists at a media briefing yesterday in Abuja, said it doesn’t mean that the country cannot import drugs but 70 per cent is too much.
She said: “In terms of bringing in shipments of medicine, we import about 70 per cent and every time I think about that, I get depressed in my own spirit. Why should we be so dependent on other countries? That doesn’t mean we should not import some but 70 per cent is a lot.”
Speaking on the agency’s fight against falsified medicines, Adeyeye recalled that NAFDAC was not at the port for seven years, (2011 to 2018) even though its mandate includes controlling importation and exportation but that since her resumption, the agency has returned to the port and that they have seized over N1.7 trillion worth of tramadol containers.
“We have been doing a lot since my resumption. At the point when I came in, we were swimming in tramadol as a country, and at one point I said are they planning to destroy us? Because once you touch the youth, you have destroyed the nation. They were raining tramadol on us.