The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has announced the pre-qualification approval for the agency’s Yaba laboratory, Lagos State, as a Central Drug Control Laboratory.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

She stated that the World Health Organisation had recently approved the CDCL.

She said that the approval of the laboratory for the agency was a significant milestone in its dedication to ensuring the safety and quality of pharmaceutical products.

According to her, the pre-qualification approval was communicated to the agency via mail received from the WHO pre-qualification inspection team on September 15.

She said that the success was finally published on the WHO website, adding that the website address through which the public could cite and reference, was equally shared with the agency for dissemination.

“You can access the information on the pre-qualification procedure, as well as the list of pre-qualified quality control laboratories, on the pre-qualification unit medicine website: https://extranet.who.int/pqweb/medicines

”NAFDAC is Nigeria’s regulatory body responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of food, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices and other related products.

“NAFDAC’s mission is to safeguard public health by ensuring that only safe and wholesome products are made available to the Nigerian public,” the DG stated.

The NAFDAC boss added, “This is a huge landmark achievement for the agency and Nigeria. Very few laboratories in the world have the apex status of WHO pre-qualification.

“Our journey towards this milestone actually started since year 2010, but with renewed efforts and more commitment to attempts by our management and the Federal Government in the last four years, we have finally achieved this goal.

“The WHO pre-qualification of the CDCL is a testament to the unwavering commitment of NAFDAC to meeting international standards of excellence in drug quality control and regulation.”

The NAFDAC boss stated that this prestigious recognition brought numerous benefits to CDCL, NAFDAC, and most importantly, to the Nigerian people.

Adeyeye listed the benefits that the WHO pre-qualification of the CDCL would bring to Nigeria as global recognition, enhanced pharmaceutical quality, international collaboration and advanced public health.

Others are the streaming regulatory process, enhancement of credibility and advancement of Nigeria’s healthcare system.