Nigeria won’t be dumping ground for banned chemicals, NAFDAC vows

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has vowed that Nigeria will no longer be made a dumping ground for chemicals banned in other countries.

This is as the agency faulted reports that 40 per cent of the registered brands of pesticide products used in Nigeria are either banned or restricted for use by the European Union.

The agency’s Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, stated this during the organisation’s two-day top management committee meeting in Lagos.

A statement from the agency on Sunday titled “Nigeria will not be a dumping ground for chemicals banned in other countries, vows NAFDAC” quoted Adeyeye as describing NAFDAC as an ISO: 900: 2015 quality management system-certified organisation.

The statement read, “The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control dispelled the insinuation that 40 per cent of the registered brands of pesticide products used in Nigeria are either banned or restricted for use by EU, thereby endangering the lives of people, animals, and the environment in Nigeria.”

The NAFDAC boss added that the agency had put in place procedures to enable it to make regulatory decisions and determine whether an active ingredient should be banned or restricted.

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She said, “NAFDAC is a signatory to the international convention that banned chemicals and pesticides such as the Rotterdam Convention, an international treaty designed to facilitate informed decision-making by countries with regard to trade in hazardous chemicals and pesticides.

“Chemicals banned by international convention have been phased out and never entertained for registration or given import permits as raw materials for production.”

She said NAFDAC was responsible for ensuring that chemical products produced in Nigeria and those being imported into the country meet the prerequisite in-country approval as well as international standards.

Adeyeye added that the agency has a stringent requirement of ensuring that any pesticide imported into Nigeria is on the market in the exporting country and that the current free sale certificate is authenticated by the Nigerian embassy in the exporting country.

The NAFDAC boss said to ensure that only active ingredients approved by NAFDAC are allowed into the country, the agency appointed testing agents and laboratories to conduct tests and forward results to the agency before any pesticide is shipped from countries that are major exporters of agrochemicals into Nigeria.

While saying that adequate quality control tests are carried out by the agency before granting certifications for all products that are either imported or manufactured within the country, she said the field trial evaluation is conducted in collaboration with research institutes in Nigeria to determine the safety, quality and efficacy of new molecules as well as inspection of manufacturing facilities to establish good manufacturing practice.