West African Health Organization (WAHO) Congratulates Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on their elevation to WHO Maturity Level 3
The West Africa Health Organization (WAHO) congratulates Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on their achievement of World Health Organization (WHO) Maturity Level 3 for National Medicines Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs).
NAFDAC becomes only the second NMRA in West Africa and one of four in Africa to have achieved this prestigious milestone, the other three NMRAs being Tanzania, Ghana, and Egypt. WAHO therefore felicitates with the Director-General of NAFDAC, the Honourable Minister of Health of Nigeria, and the Government
and People of Nigeria on this international recognition of the strong regulatory performance, governance and autonomy of the country’s medicines gatekeeper.
Improving the regulatory systems and capacity of NMRAs in the ECOWAS region to ensure quality and safety of medicines, vaccines and other medical products has been a priority of the West African Health Organisation (WAHO). Over the past few years, we have supported all NMRAs both technically and financially to achieve this goal in collaboration with international partners. Following a gaps analysis in 2017 of the performance status of the region’s 15 NMRAs, WAHO in collaboration with WHO championed the introduction of Institutional Development Plans in line with WHO’s Global Benchmarking Tool for all the NMRAs.
This has led to significant improvement across the region in Pharmaceuticals Quality Management and Regulatory systems. To date, five NMRAs have achieved international ISO 9001-2015 accreditation whilst seven National Medicines Quality Control Laboratories which are integrated within NMRAs (NMQCLs) have
achieved ISO 17025 certification.
The Food and Drug Authority (FDA) of Ghana attained WHO Maturity Level 3 in April 2020 and this week we celebrate the entry of Nigeria’s NAFDAC to this exclusive club.
WAHO will continue to work with all the National Medicines Regulatory Authorities in the region to achieve and maintain higher international standards in order to strengthen the regional joint regulatory assessment procedures and enhance medicines and vaccines production capacities in the region.
Once more we congratulate the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria for their success.