UK Parliament honours NAFDAC chief for turning agency around
The UK House of Lords has honoured NAFDAC Director-General Mojisola Adeyeye for transforming Nigeria’s drug regulator from a struggling agency into one of Africa’s best.
The United Kingdom’s House of Lords has honoured the Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mojisola Adeyeye, with a special African Leadership Recognition Award. The award, presented at the 16th African Business Leaders Awards (ABLA) ceremony in London, recognised her leadership in transforming the agency from a struggling institution into one of Africa’s leading regulatory bodies.
When Adeyeye took over in November 2017, NAFDAC was in crisis. The agency was burdened with over ₦3.2 billion in debt. Most laboratory equipment was non-functional. Vehicle shortages hampered inspection work. Staff morale was low. Regulatory processes were largely manual. The agency was rated below Level 1 in the World Health Organization’s global benchmarking assessment, placing it among the world’s weakest drug regulators.
Within her first year, Adeyeye cleared more than ₦3.1 billion in inherited debt and uncovered ₦200 million in fraudulent liabilities. The agency invested heavily in new laboratory equipment, inspection vehicles and digital infrastructure while moving about 90 percent of its regulatory services online.
The reforms have yielded international recognition. NAFDAC achieved WHO Level 3 regulatory maturity status in 2022 and successfully maintained its 2025 rating, placing it among a select group of regulators meeting internationally recognised standards. The agency also secured WHO prequalification for its central drug laboratory in Lagos, took a significant step toward joining the Pharmaceutical Inspection Co-operation Scheme (PIC/S), and helped Nigeria become one of only 25 members of the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH), boosting confidence in the country’s drug regulatory system.
These milestones have strengthened investor confidence in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector. Under NAFDAC’s “five plus five” policy, imports of locally manufactured drugs have fallen by about 70 percent, encouraging domestic production and attracting new investment from international pharmaceutical companies.
NAFDAC is now targeting WHO Maturity Level 4 and World List Authority status, achievements that would give Nigerian-made drugs wider recognition in regional and global markets and support the country’s ambition to become a pharmaceutical manufacturing and export hub.
Accepting the award, Adeyeye dedicated the honour to NAFDAC’s staff. “I accept this honour not just for myself but for all the dedicated staff of NAFDAC whose tireless efforts have made every achievement under my leadership possible,” she said.
This echoes the 2010s reforms at the National Identity Management Commission, when new leadership transformed a moribund agency into a functional institution. The mechanism then was different, but the result was the same: competent leadership, backed by political will, can turn around failing agencies.
The winners: NAFDAC, which has regained its credibility; Nigerian patients, who have access to safer drugs; and the Nigerian economy, which benefits from a stronger pharmaceutical sector. The losers: counterfeit drug manufacturers, who face tighter regulation, and international competitors who lose market share to Nigerian producers.
Bottom Line: A Nigerian agency that was once a byword for dysfunction is now being honoured in the British Parliament. That is not luck. That is leadership.