Recently, the Director-general – NAFDAC announced the commencement of a Sensitization Campaign in Nigeria. Through this campaign, NAFDAC intends to inform, sensitize and educate the Nigerian citizens about the dangers of intake and use of bogus medicinal products surfacing the market. With clear, concise, informative, and educative directives, the campaign will spur awareness about various infractions affecting the Nigerian Healthcare system.

The campaign intends to address issues such as:

• dangers of buying medicines from hawkers
• abuse of codeine and self-medication, especially among youth
• risks of transfat and consumption of excessive oil
• wrong use of chemicals and its hazardous effects
• low-level exclusive breastfeeding practice by lactating mothers and associated health hazards
• the problem of antimicrobial resistance arising from the animal meat

The first phase of the sensitization campaign began in selected States in August and will go on till September 2021. With the help of the Senate Committee on Health and the House Committee on Healthcare, the campaign will cover all 36 States of the Federation.

The Agency has joined hands with the MMCC as project consultants to drive the campaign. The mass media, youth organizations, and civil societies will be leading the campaign targeting the markets, women and men, road transport workers and employers, community youth organizations, and students.

The Director-general also announced that the key objective of the sensitization program is to intensify and expand the scope of informal and formal behavior change communication strategies to reach the vulnerable communities, especially at the grassroots. Dissemination of Food and Drug safety information is an important aspect of our Regulatory work.

The goal of this campaign is to encourage the MSMEs to register their products with the NAFDAC and the patients to source their medicines from the licensed pharmacies and to ensure that the quality products are marketed and most importantly safeguard public health.

This awareness campaign is a very significant step in bringing a Regulatory reform in Nigeria. NAFDAC wants to encourage effective product registration and prevent counterfeit medicines from being available to its citizens. Stakeholders involved in the product registration should decode the entire process as per the NAFDAC Regulatory standards. Assistance from a regional Regulatory expert can help you avoid any roadblocks during registrations.

Stay updated. Stay informed,