What is NAFDAC? Full meaning, history and functions

NAFDAC full meaning

NAFDAC is short for the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. The name comes from the law that created it, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control Act.

NAFDAC is a federal government agency. Under the Act, the Minister responsible for health can give it directives, and it has a Governing Council whose chairman is appointed by the President. Its headquarters are in Wuse, Abuja, and it has an operations office in Isolo, Lagos.

When and why NAFDAC was set up

NAFDAC was created by Decree No. 15 of 1993, later amended by Decree No. 19 of 1999. The law is now the NAFDAC Act, Cap N1, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. The Act gives its commencement date as 1 October 1992, and NAFDAC's own website says the agency was officially established in October 1992.

Before NAFDAC, food and drug control sat inside the Federal Ministry of Health, in its Food and Drug Administration and Control Department. The Act dissolved that department and set transitional rules for its staff, assets and liabilities.

The Act states its purpose in its opening line: to regulate and control the importation, exportation, manufacture, advertisement, distribution, sale and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, bottled water and chemicals. In short, NAFDAC exists to make sure the products you eat, drink, take or put on your skin are of the right quality and safe.

Functions of NAFDAC

Section 5 of the NAFDAC Act lists the agency's functions. In plain words, NAFDAC:

• Regulates and controls the import, export, manufacture, advertising, distribution, sale and use of food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, bottled water and chemicals
• Tests products and makes sure they meet approved quality standards, including their raw materials and how factories produce them
• Investigates production premises and raw materials, and certifies production sites and products
• Inspects imported food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, bottled water and chemicals
• Writes the standards and guidelines for producing, importing, exporting, selling and distributing these products
• Registers food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, bottled water and chemicals
• Controls exports and issues quality certificates for products leaving Nigeria
• Sets up and runs laboratories across Nigeria
• Pronounces on the quality and safety of products after analysis
• Limits narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances to medical and scientific use, and authorises their import and export
• Works with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) against drug abuse
• Advises federal, state and local governments and the private sector on quality, safety and regulation
• Runs research on the storage, adulteration, distribution and rational use of regulated products
• Issues guidelines on advertising, and approves and monitors adverts for these products
• Compiles and publishes data from its work
• Sponsors national and international conferences
• Works with organisations inside and outside Nigeria to carry out these functions
• Decides whether medicines, food, cosmetics, medical devices or chemicals are suitable for human and animal use

The list ends with a general power: NAFDAC can carry out any activity needed to perform these functions.

How NAFDAC is run

A Director-General leads the agency day to day. Above the agency sits a Governing Council. Under section 2 of the Act, the Council brings together:

• A chairman appointed by the President on the Minister's recommendation
• The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health
• The heads of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the NDLEA, or their representatives
• The chairman of the Pharmacists Board of Nigeria, or a representative
• One representative each from the pharmaceutical group and the food and beverages group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria
• The Director-General of NAFDAC
• Three people appointed by the Minister to represent the public interest

The Council advises the Federal Government on national policy for these products and approves the quality specifications NAFDAC uses to certify them. NAFDAC states its vision as being a world class regulator that ensures quality and safe food, drugs and other regulated products are available.

What NAFDAC regulates

NAFDAC's website groups the products it regulates into seven areas:

• Drugs
• Food
• Chemicals
• Veterinary and allied products
• Vaccines, biologicals and medical devices
• Cosmetics
• Narcotics and controlled substances

In March 2022, the World Health Organization announced that Nigeria's regulatory system had reached maturity level 3 for medicines and imported vaccines. WHO describes regulators at this level as functioning well.

What NAFDAC does that you can use

Several NAFDAC services are there for you to use directly:

• A NAFDAC registration number on registered products. You can look it up in the NAFDAC Greenbook or on the registration portal. See how to verify a NAFDAC number online.
• Scratch codes on some antimalarial and antibiotic medicines, under NAFDAC's Mobile Authentication Service. You scratch the panel and text the PIN to a short code.
• Public alerts and recalls about fake, substandard and unsafe products, naming the product and batch.
• Ways to report a fake product or a side effect, by phone, email, the Med-safety app or at a NAFDAC office.

If you think a product is fake, read how to know a fake NAFDAC number and how to report fake products in Nigeria.

A NAFDAC number on a pack means the product was registered. Counterfeiters can still copy that number onto a fake pack.

How to contact NAFDAC

• Enquiries: 0700-1-NAFDAC (0700-1-623322)
• Complaints: 0800-1-NAFDAC (0800-1-623322)
• Suspected fake or substandard products: sf.alert@nafdac.gov.ng
• Side effects from a medicine: pharmacovigilance@nafdac.gov.ng
• Headquarters: Plot 2032, Olusegun Obasanjo Way, Zone 7, Wuse, Abuja
• Lagos office: Plot 1, Industrial Estate, Lagos-Oshodi Apapa Expressway, Isolo, Lagos