President Bola Tinubu congratulated the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for keeping its World Health Organisation (WHO) Maturity Level 3 (ML3) status. This status is about how well they regulate medicines and vaccines.
A statement from Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, said the WHO did a tough check of NAFDAC from May 28 to 30, 2025. They used global standards to see how well NAFDAC was doing. This check came after a previous review in November 2024 and several meetings earlier this year.
President Tinubu said he was happy with WHO’s decision. He said NAFDAC has a strong and reliable system for regulating medicines and vaccines that are not made in Nigeria. He added that the government has worked hard to build up this system.
He praised the NAFDAC workers for their hard work and professionalism. He said this success makes Nigeria known as a trusted partner in global health and fighting diseases.
President Tinubu promised that his government will keep working to make sure medicines and vaccines in Nigeria are safe, good quality, and work well. This is part of his plan to improve the country’s health system.
He talked about some health projects happening now, like fixing over 17,000 health centers, improving care for mothers, training 120,000 health workers, and increasing health insurance coverage in three years.The President said making more medicines in Nigeria is still very important.
He also promised to work with partners and donors to grow Nigeria’s medicine industry, bring in investments, and make more products locally.
Looking ahead, President Tinubu said his government will help NAFDAC try to reach WHO’s Level 4 status, which is the highest level of quality for medicine regulation. He said they will support NAFDAC to keep getting better.
NAFDAC first reached ML3 status in 2022. It was the first agency in Africa to do this for regulating medicines and vaccines not made locally. WHO checks regularly to make sure they keep doing well, showing how important Nigeria’s achievement is.
