The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it has cleared the backlog of 6,000 applications for registration of products within six months.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Moji Adeyeye, disclosed this while speaking on her achievements in the last six months, on Sunday in Abuja.
Ms Adeyeye, who took over as substantive director general of NAFDAC in November 2017, said the applications are mostly from water and food companies.
“During my advocacy visit to stakeholders, I was questioned by our clients on the delay in registration of their products.
“Some of them told me that their applications had been with NAFDAC for two years and nothing was done.
“I took up that challenge and gave a directive for the applications to be cleared within a stipulated time.
“I gave the directive that by April, all applications on water installations and food and other companies’ registration should be cleared.
“We gave guidelines and deadline for the customers to meet and then involved other directorates in the agency to get it done,’’ she explained.
According to her, under normal circumstances, the procedure for water or food registration takes 60 days while drugs registration takes about 120 days because of tests that are carried out.
Ms Adeyeye, a professor, added that to meet the service delivery aspect of the agency, a Quality Management System was introduced “for the benefit of our end users”.
“All my directors and other members of staff are now more efficient and effective than ever to ensure safety of Nigerians especially in what they consume,’’ she said.