NAFDAC: Nigeria won’t be dumping ground for chemical products banned in other countries

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says Nigeria will not be a dumping ground for chemical products banned in other countries.

According to a statement on Sunday signed by Olusayo Akintola, resident media consultant of NAFDAC, Moji Adeyeye, the agency’s director-general, said this during the organisation’s two-day top management committee meeting in Lagos.

The statement was titled ‘Nigeria will not be a dumping ground for chemicals banned in other countries, vows NAFDAC’.

Adeyeye debunked the report that 40 percent of the registered brands of pesticide products in Nigeria were banned or restricted for use by the European Union.

“The agency has put in place procedures to enable it take regulatory decisions and determine whether an active ingredient should be banned or restricted,” Adeyeye 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.

“NAFDAC is ISO: 900: 2015 Quality Management System (QMS) and a certified organisation that has put in place procedures that enable the agency take regulatory decisions to determine whether an active ingredient should be banned or restricted.

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

Adeyeye said NAFDAC has stringent requirement of ensuring that any pesticide to be 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.

She also said in order to ensure that only active ingredients approved by the agency are allowed into the country, appointed testing agents (CRIA) and laboratories to conduct tests and forward results to the agency before any pesticide is shipped in.