Photo caption: Fake products site in Kano
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has destroyed seized counterfeit, substandard and falsified products worth N985.300,290 in Kano State.
The products destroyed were seized from the Northwest zone comprising Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kaduna and Zamfara States.
Speaking during the exercise on Thursday in Kano, NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye said some of the products destroyed were made up of substandard, fake and falsely labelled medicines.
She said the rest comprised unwholesome food products, cosmetics and other counterfeited unsafe NAFDAC regulated products seized by the agency from manufacturers, importers and distributors.
Adeyeye who was represented by the agency’s North-West Zonal Coordinator, Mrs. Josephine Dayilim, explained that some of the expired drugs were voluntarily handed over by compliant companies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), trade unions, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Nigeria Customs Services from the Kano/Jigawa, Kaduna and Sokoto Commands, and National Association of Proprietary and Patent Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED).
She noted that some of the products include medicines such as antibiotics, antihypertensive, antimalarial, analgesics, herbal remedies containing psychoactive and controlled substances.
Other are food items like vegetable oil, non-alcoholic beverages, sachet water, condiments, tomato pastes while cosmetics including creams, pomade, ointments etc and more were destroyed alongside chemicals like insecticides, pesticides, agrochemicals, and medical devices like diagnostic kits, infusion giving sets, among others.
While reiterating the agency’s commitment in safeguarding public health and collaborating relevant stakeholders in ensuring effective control of regulated products, the DG said NAFDAC will continue to ensure that food and drug products made available to the public are safe, effective, and of good quality by strengthening its several regulatory practices.
Earlier in his welcoming address, NAFDAC State Coordinator, Mr. Kasim Ibrahim, pointed out that the movement of drugs sellers from open drugs market to a Coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC) at Dangwauro Market is yielding positive results by curtailing counterfeit, substandard and falsified products in the state.
He said Kano as a centre of commerce has become a channel from which most drugs circulate to other Northern part of the country including countries like chad, CAR and Cameroon.
He noted that when the effect of counterfeiting, substandard and falsified products are reduced in the state, it will go a long way in helping not only the region but humanity as a whole.
