Nigeria’s food and drug regulator is facing a severe staffing crisis, operating with just 2,000 employees to oversee products for a population exceeding 240 million people.
Speaking on Channels Television on Thursday, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), warned that the severe workforce deficit is severely overstretching the agency’s nationwide operations.
To illustrate the stark gap in regulatory capacity, Adeyeye pointed to Indonesia, a country with a comparable population of roughly 280 million that employs around 20,000 regulatory personnel.
“We have been chronically short of staff in NAFDAC,” she said, highlighting the massive disparity between the two nations.
While acknowledging that matching Indonesia’s workforce is unrealistic, the NAFDAC chief stressed that the agency urgently requires a minimum of 5,000 additional staff members to effectively carry out its mandate across the country. “We are stretched thin. We are doing the very best we can do,” Adeyeye admitted, noting that physical presence in every part of Nigeria remains impossible under current conditions.
Beyond manpower shortages, Adeyeye highlighted long-standing financial constraints affecting enforcement operations. She disclosed that the legislation establishing the Federal Task Force to support NAFDAC, the C34 Act of 2004, has failed to receive any state funding since its passage two decades ago.
“That bill was never supported with one naira,” she stated, explaining that the federal unit works alongside 36 state-level task forces to execute enforcement actions across the country.
Despite these hurdles, the Director-General expressed confidence that relief may be on the horizon following recent engagements with the Minister of Finance. Adeyeye voiced optimism that the Federal Government is listening to the agency’s appeals and will soon provide the necessary financial and recruitment support to strengthen NAFDAC’s regulatory oversight.