The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration Control has said that it is ready to support locally produced hospital equipment and medical devices.

 

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, said this at the inauguration and investiture ceremony of the National President, Hospital Equipment and Medical Devices Dealers Association of Nigeria, Dr Ifeanyi Nwankwo, held in Lagos recently.

 

Adeyeye, who was represented by the Assistant Director, Drug Evaluation and Research Directorate, Mrs Kadija Adeabolade, said her agency would partner HEMDDAN to promote the manufacturing of indigenous medical devices.

 

She, however, maintained that NAFDAC would not compromise standards in the process of ensuring that quality medical devices are produced within the country.

“We have a mandate to ensure that only safe medical devices and good quality are available in our markets. We will be working closely with HEMDDAN, which is an association of professionals in the hospital and medical equipment and devices industry. They will serve as a regulatory body for us and build capacity in the industry through training programmes and workshops to acquire the right knowledge on the job.

 

“We shall work with them to have in our market some of the equipment that are locally made to further grow our economy as this will help us create jobs,” Adeyeye said. The National President of the association, Dr Ifeanyi Nwankwo, said the focus of the group was to support quality health service delivery in the country.

 

Nwankwo said this could be achieved by stopping importations of substandard medical devices into the country. “Our primary objective is to support quality health services in Nigeria and the way we can do that is to stop importations of substandard medical devices so that we can compete with our foreign counterparts,” he added.