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BARING any last minute change, the federal government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari will soon confirm the appointment of Yetunde Oni as the substantive director general of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC.

A recommendation letter sent to Buhari from the ministry of heath signed by Isaac Adewale, minister of health drew the president’s attention to the fact that

Oni became the acting director general of NAFDAC on February 17, 2016, following the removal of the then director general, Paul Orhii.

 

“Since taking over the mantle of leadership of the Agency, Mrs. Oni has exhibited exceptional leadership qualities, which have led to the transformation of the Agency back to its past glory both locally and internationally,” Adewale said.

According to him, “Being a foundation staff and pioneer Director of Administration and Human Resources, Mrs. Oni has contributed to the evolutionary process and nurturing of NAFDAC as a topmost regulatory agency.  Her impeccable track record as a hardworking, dedicated, selfless, honest and brilliant officer, are sterling qualities commending her as great asset for the change agenda of Mr. President.”

The letter reads: “As Acting Director General of NAFDAC, she has refined the statutory mandate of the Agency and repositioned it to play a pivotal role in current efforts by Mr. President to diversify the Economy and boost export of value added agricultural products.  It is also gratifying to note that Mrs. Oni has also repositioned the Agency as one of the driving forces behind our current efforts to promote the development of MSMEs in the country.

“Within the short period of her leadership, she has been able to:

1. Resuscitate NAFDAC’s various Laboratories by engaging the services of a local technician who assessed the laboratory instruments/equipment abandoned for years and was able to put them back into use. An MOU was also signed with them for the maintenance of these items. This cost saving mechanism has given impetus to the efforts of the Agency at retooling the laboratories.

 

” ii.        Got across to the manufacturers of major instruments (HPLC, etc) and other equipment and they agreed to trade off the obsolete ones for new models.

“Solicited and obtained support towards retooling of NAFDAC laboratories:  An MOU was entered into with Bank of Industry (BOI) which lead to donation of one Agilent HPLC worth N42 Million.

“Entered into MOU with Informa Life Sciences resulting in $25,000 worth of equipment to NAFDAC.

“ABTE-MAN Group supported the laboratories with N12 Million worth of equipment.

” iii.        Put in place modalities leading to:

• ISO-17025 Accreditation of Agulu Laboratory in February, 2017.
• ISO-17025 Accreditation of Kaduna Laboratory in June, 2017.
• WHO Pre-Qualification of our Central Laboratory in Yaba in 2107.
• Prior to her appointment, only two NAFDAC Laboratories, out of seven, achieved ISO 17025 accreditation.
• This by implication meant that the results from these accredited laboratories are internationally acceptable.
• Today, samples that were earlier sent to foreign countries are being analyzed by these laboratories and revenue raised for government.

” iv.        Resuscitated the abandoned bulk purchase agreement with MERCK Group. Necessary approvals have been obtained from BPP, Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) including the Presidency. This was possible because of her conviction that the long-term solution to their laboratory problems lies in the uninterrupted supply of needed instruments, equipment and chemicals/consumables.

” v.        Secured a facility of N800 million for the Agency from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in support of the bulk purchase agreement. This is based on her believe that paucity of funds might pose a challenge towards realization of the bulk purchase agreement.

This effort puts NAFDAC at a vintage position to play active role in the current efforts by the President Muhammadu Buhari to diversify the economy and boost exports of value added agricultural products.

1. Had a meeting with CRIA Agents appointed by NAFDAC in China and India. These Agents analyse products billed for export from these countries to Nigeria. The Agents were paid in foreign currencies

and prior to this time, nothing came into the purse of NAFDAC from them. An MOU was signed with them for payment of 5% of the cost of analysis of each product into NAFDAC domiciliary account in support of retooling their laboratories.

vii.        Entered into collaboration with MDAs and this resulted into:

• Donation of Nine (9) vehicles to NAFDAC by Dangote Group, BOA and Flour Mills of Nigeria.
• Promise by National Security Adviser (NSA) to support our surveillance and monitoring activities with vehicles.
• Through the assistance of WHO, the Agency produced five (5) guidelines to enhance its regulatory activities. These guidelines which are in line with international best practices were launched in 2016.
• The staff of the Agency attended various capacity building workshops and programmes ranging from four (4) to nine (9) months through the support of WHO, UNICEF, USP, USAID, BMGF, Indian, Japanese and Malaysia governments.

viii.        Introduced compulsory overseas GMP Inspections as a pre-requisite for granting Marketing Authorization. In the past years, the Agency was granting Marketing Authorization without GMP

Inspections. This was against international best practices and dubious importers capitalized on this and all manners of products were imported into the country.

Risk-based categorization of companies/products was also introduced.

 

By this policy, NAFDAC now rely on information obtained from inspection carried out by renowned foreign sister agencies in taking decisions in respect of GMP inspection.

This policy is in line with global best practices and has enhanced/improved their ease of doing business and timely release of marketing authorisation /registration of products.

1. Reduced the cost of registration of NAFDAC regulated products under MSME’s Clinic by 50%. This is in support of the Ease of Doing Business of government thereby opening doors of opportunities

for Nigerian business both in locally consumed goods, exports and employment of our youths.

 

The NAFDAC products registration guidelines have been streamlined to ease business for MSMES.

1. Undertook nationwide tour of NAFDAC offices to assess their working conditions and boost staff morale. The visit resulted into:
2. Securing land for building of NAFDAC stand-alone office in Yobe, Imo, Ogun, Osun, Edo and Abia States.
3. Commissioning of NAFDAC South-South Zonal Office in River State in 2017.

iii.            Decentralisation of offices of NAFDAC in the three (3) Senatorial districts in Kano, Nassarawa, Yobe and Niger States. Those of Kwara and Cross River are in the pipeline.

1. Introduced measures that resulted in better monitoring of imported regulated products by:

• Creation of new outstations in Ilela, Kamba and Jibia to ensure that land borders are adequately covered.
• More staff were posted to the Airports and Seaports. This has resulted in seizures of unregistered and unwholesome regulated products. Most of these seizures were brought to the attention of Joint Intelligence Board members.
• Numerous destruction exercises were carried out by the Agency across the country.

Section 9 (1) of the NAFDAC Act 1993 provides for the appointment of the Director-General for the Agency.  It went further to state that the Director-General “shall be a person with good knowledge of

pharmacy, food and drugs”. Mrs Yetunde Oni fits into this being  Chemist and an astute Administrator (see attached Curriculum Vitae – Appendix I).

 

Mr. President is invited to note that the Acting Director General (NAFDAC), Mrs. Yetunde Oni has within the short period of her being in the helm of affairs of NAFDAC:

 

1. Exhibited exceptional leadership qualities characteristics of a charismatic leader
2. Brought attitudinal changes in the staff of the Agency which has transformed the Agency and restored it to its past glory
3. Showed transparency and integrity in her activities which is in line with the anti-corruption stance and change mantra of the present administration
4. Recorded wonderful achievements amongst which are:

(a)  Retooling of NAFDAC Laboratories

(b) Accreditation of NAFDAC Agulu and Kaduna Laboratories

(c)      Entered into MoU for sustained uninterrupted supply ofequipment, chemicals, etc for NAFDAC Laboratories hence ensuring their maximum performance and efficiency.

(d)  Ensured that CRIA agents remit part of their profit to the      Agency

(e)  Sustained collaboration with MDAs leading to donation of Laboratory equipment, vehicles, production/publication of regulations, capacity building, etc

(f)      Sanitized procedure for granting of marketing authorization which led to ease in registration processes.

(g)  Supported Ease of Doing Business through 50% reduction in the cost of registration of NAFDAC regulated products under MSME’s clinic.

(h)  Secured land in various states for NAFDAC to build stand alone offices.

(i)  Introduced measures that resulted in better monitoring of imported regulated products through the land, sea and air ports.

5. Paragraph 9(i) of NAFDAC Act 1993 provides for appointment of Director General who has knowledge in Pharmacy, Food and Drug. Based on this provision, Mrs. Yetunde Oni being a Chemist and an astute Administrator is qualified to be confirmed as a substantive Director General of NAFDAC.

“This is submitted for your kind consideration, Sir.”

– Sept 26, 2017 @ 15:24 GMT /

 

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