The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mojisola Adeyeye, has revealed that she inherited a N3.2 billion debt when she assumed office.
Professor Adeyeye also said there was an additional ₦500 million unaccounted for in NAFDAC when she assumed office.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Friday, August 9, 2024, the NAFDAC boss stated that the financial irregularities she encountered were severe enough.
According to her, in developed countries like the United States, such a situation could have led to the agency being declared bankrupt.
Professor Adeyeye’s disclosure highlights the significant financial challenges NAFDAC faced before her leadership, raising concerns about the management and accountability within the agency before her tenure.
She said, “When I got to NAFDAC, I met N3.2b Debt, and N500 million missing and there was no account for it before I came.
“I asked them if they had capital projects they used the money for. Bear in mind that at that time, N1 million was equivalent to $2000. So multiply $2000 by N500m. I was coming from the US where money was hard to get. You worked hard for your money. I could have given up but I saw an opportunity and I seized it.
“It was tough because if that had happened in the US, NAFDAC would have been declared bankrupt, and a financial house would have taken over the management of our finances. But I didn’t have money to hire a financial house.
“My point is that we have enough endowment in this country to make things better, and I am using NAFDAC as an example,” she said.
Professor Adeyeye assured she would deploy technology to fight some of the challenges she met on the ground.
“I said I was going to cut to the bone. I am going to be using technology to ensure that our system moves on.
“We started Zoom meetings in 2018. Many people didn’t like because it they were used to getting travel allowances and DTAs. But we had to save,” she added.
