Posted on: Thu 04-09-2025

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has announced plans to deepen the use of digital technologies in order to improve access to quality medicines and strengthen healthcare delivery across Nigeria.

NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known in Abuja during a panel session at the launch of the Care365 Digital Health Hub. She revealed that about 72 per cent of the agency’s processes have already been digitised, bringing greater transparency, efficiency, and global connectivity to its operations.

“Digitisation is critical for Nigeria to move from maturity level 3 to level 4 in the World Health Organisation’s global regulatory benchmarking. WHO expects strong regulatory agencies to be digitised,” Adeyeye said.

She disclosed that NAFDAC’s Green Book, which contains a list of about 7,000 approved products, would soon be integrated with the Care365 Health Hub device, enabling doctors to prescribe only certified medicines.

Highlighting other innovations, the DG pointed out that NAFDAC’s track-and-trace system, which was successfully deployed to monitor millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses, is now being applied to narcotics and maternal and child health commodities to curb falsification. In addition, the Scan-to-Verify app allows consumers to authenticate medicines in real time, while the Med Safety app, developed for reporting adverse drug reactions and vaccine side effects, has trained more than 20,000 doctors during the pandemic.

Adeyeye further noted that NAFDAC is working closely with the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) as both agencies prepare for WHO maturity level 4, with plans underway to link licensed pharmacies with care providers through digital platforms.

Also speaking at the event, the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Muyi Aina, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to expanding access to quality healthcare. He said the agency is working towards ensuring 17,000 fully functional Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) nationwide.

According to him, more than 3,000 PHCs are currently being revitalised with support from regional development commissions, with about 1,200 already completed. He added that the NPHCDA has retrained 9,000 doctors and nurses serving in rural areas and is planning to retrain an additional 120,000 health workers.

Dr. Aina further explained that the agency is transitioning to e-learning for staff training and digitising health records to improve information sharing across facilities.

With these initiatives, both NAFDAC and the NPHCDA are positioning digital innovation at the centre of Nigeria’s healthcare reforms, with the ultimate goal of improving quality, access, and patient safety nationwide.

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