NAFDAC Recruits 600 Pharmacists to Strengthen Fight Against Fake Drugs
Oluwatobi Adu 
ABUJA, Nigeria – The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has inaugurated a reserve programme involving 600 pharmacists to strengthen medicine safety monitoring and regulatory activities across Nigeria.
The Pharmacists Reserve Volunteer Programme (PRVP) was inaugurated on Sunday, with pharmacists drawn from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, representing Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
The initiative is designed to provide NAFDAC with additional personnel who can be mobilised when urgent regulatory support is required.
These include product recalls, suspected circulation of falsified medicines and emergencies in hard-to-reach communities.
NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, charged the volunteers to maintain strict integrity and resist pressure or offers that could compromise their responsibilities.
She also warned them to protect confidential information obtained during inspections and investigations, stressing that such information belongs to the agency and the Nigerian public.
“It is an investment in you, and through you, in the regulatory future of this country.”
The programme coordinator and Director of Narcotics and Controlled Substances, Dr Momodu Omamegbe Rametu, described the initiative as an organised backup system that would increase citizen participation in regulation, post-market surveillance and drug demand reduction campaigns.
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the NAFDAC Training School, Dr Tunde Sigbeku, said the volunteers would undergo training in pharmacovigilance, post-market surveillance, inspection and enforcement, antimicrobial resistance awareness, narcotics control and research.
Sigbeku said the programme represented a new approach to extending NAFDAC’s regulatory reach.
He described it as: “The first time the Agency is having a backup or a reserve of foot soldiers across the country to help us in the battle against fake drug and substandard products.”
The initiative is expected to strengthen NAFDAC’s ability to respond quickly to medicine safety concerns while expanding surveillance and regulatory activities at the community level.
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