The Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye on Friday revealed how she was able to turn around the fortune of the agency and pay off the N3.2 billion debt she inherited.

Adeyeye who came into office a year ago also said under her watch, the agency has seized and destroyed N30 billion worth fake drugs in the last one year.

NAFDAC DG who briefed Journalists on the occasion marking her one year in office on Friday in Abuja said that at the time of assuming office, there was no budgeting for the agency.

She said, “I did not know that there was no directorate-focused budgeting before my assumption and that the agency had N3.2 billion debt. I met this big challenge with great resolve as p[art of quality management system that included fiscal and financial responsibility. I had to work with finance and accounts directorate for about three months from January-March 2018.”

The result of the efforts, she said include, “reducing the debt profile from N3.2billion of the agency to zero as of November 20th 2018.”

she also noted that the agency has been able to put in place financial sanity by stepping down all fictitious claims and also introducing budget discipline to all financial activities of the agency.

Besides, she also noted that the agency has been able to pay severance allowance of retired staff worth N14.246,499.00 million.

this is as the agency has also recovered N106,590,298.52 million erroneously credited to another MDA in 2015.The agency she said also recoveredN533 million by the ports Inspection Directorate evaded administrative charges.

Apart from sanitizing the agency, Prof. Adeyeye also disclosed that in the last one year, the agency has seized and destroyed substandard and falsified medicines including unwholesome foods and other unregulated products worth over N3billion within the last one year.

She pointed out that the removal of NAFDAC from the ports from 2011 to 2018 worsened the problem of substandard and falsified medicines (SFs) and unwholesome foods in the country and portended real danger to the populace.

NAFDAC boss also posited that part of her plan to eliminate fake and illicit drugs is to promote local manufacturing; something she admitted has been top on her mind.

“This is to reverse the trend of 30 per cent locally manufactured drug products towards 70 per cent,” she pointed out.

Adeyeye added that local manufacturing also ensures drug security, reduce unemployment and increases contribution of the pharmaceutical industry to the nation’s GDP.

“It has been documented that most of the SFs are imported due to the fact that access and fastness to inspect local companies are quite spontaneous,” she stated.

The DG also informed that since her assumption of office, the agency has intercepted 86 containers containing tramadol and other unregulated drug products.

“These include 23 (40ft) containers recently examined and found to have been loaded with tramadol of various strengths from 120mg to 250mg and other unregistered pharmaceutical products that sre known to be injurious to the health of the public, most importantly our youth.

“The Tramadol is estimated to be over six billion tablets. The worth of Tramadol alone on the street is estimated to be at about N193billio,” she explained.

•Sourced from The Nation report

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