The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control says ten years of fighting counterfeiting in regulated products has seen “commendable progress” through youth empowerment and public awareness.
But the agency has also insisted the fight against counterfeiting is ongoing.
Speaking at an award ceremony for winners of the 10th NAFDAC Consumer Safety Club, the agency director general, Dr Paul Orhii, said: “Ten years down the line, there is positive behavioural change among the public, with more and more people becoming aware and conscious of not only NAFDAC regulated products but of all the products and services in our communities.”
He said the agency would continue to promote the club as part of its corporate social responsibility.
“We can only rebrand Nigeria by equipping our youths who are the future hope,” he noted.
Orhii added the agency needed to “vigorously sustain” the fight against counterfeit drugs, unwholesome good and other substandard regulated products by using every “legal, technological and social instrument in its arsenal” to resist the acts of “unscrupulous elements” desperate to get rich at the cost of lives of citizens.
“Don’t know much”
Fatima Abba-Gana, student of Ruby Springfield in Maiduguri, who won third place in senior school category, three years after her first win in the junior category, said being quizzed about consumer safety helped her broaden her knowledge and teach others because many people her age did not know much about protecting themselves from harm when dealing with regulated products.
Recently, the agency has deployed more devices as Truscan, a mobile service for authenticating drugs, identification based on infrared and radio frequency, and portable minilabs.
Meanwhile, the India’s high commissioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdev, said his country has become Nigeria’s first source of medicines and medical tourism.
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Anti-counterfeit sees “progress” and more battle ahead