Burkina Faso Biosafety Authority says it is ready to partner with the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) as part of its measures to address food insecurity in the West Africa nation.
Dr Moussa Savadogo, Programme Officer, on Environmental Safety Burkina Faso Biosafety Authority, said this on Tuesday in Abuja when he lead a team from the Authority to NBMA.
Savadogo, who represented Dr Traore Oumar, the Director-General, (DG) Burkina Faso Biosafety Authority, said partnership was key to overcoming most of the challenges facing African countries such food shortage.
He said his organisation looked forward to sharing experiences with its Nigerian counterpart on various areas such as biosafety guidelines.
Modern Biotechnology is a tool that we really need to work with in order to move forward and address food insecurity in Africa.
“Burkina Faso is watching what Nigeria is doing and the world is really proud of Nigeria in terms of developing measures ensures that modern biotechnology can be utilised in a safer manner to address food insecurity.
“We have learnt from the NBMA that we need to have a strong biosafety system in order to address food insecurity,” he said.
The DG commended NBMA for doing well in the area of policies, communication, and the signing of MoUs with other stakeholders.
Dr Agnes Asagbra, the DG, NBMA, assured the delegation of the support for them to achieve the aim of their visit to Nigeria.
“Biosafety is the current issue in the world and NBMA has done a lot in that area so I believe that is why you are here from Burkina Faso and we are ready to partner with you,” she said.
She promised that both agencies would surmount the challenges and contribute their quota towards addressing food insecurity in Africa.
Mrs Gloria Ogbaki, Information and Protocol Officer, NBMA, said the strong communication system the agency has developed over the years has enabled it to make much progress in the delivery of its mandates.
“As a result of our communication system we have been able to carry along the public, stakeholders and even international communities on what we do as regards biosafety in Nigeria.
“We are hoping for a strong collaboration with Burkina Faso on Genetically Modified Organisms GMOs and Genome editing,”
She advised the agency to carry the legislative arm of Burkina Faso government along in its policy making efforts in order to have a strong political backing for its activities.
