NAFDAC’s Crackdown: Fighting Fake Drugs and Destroying Legitimate Businesses

NAFDAC’s Crackdown: The Thin Line Between Fighting Fake Drugs and Destroying Legitimate Businesses

ADEMOLA KIZITO

For weeks, Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry has faced an unrelenting assault orchestrated by NAFDAC and the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN). Under the guise of sanitization, key drug markets, including Idumota, Onitsha, and Aba have been raided, shops locked, medicines confiscated, and an entire sector broadly labeled as criminal. The prevailing narrative suggests that all pharmaceutical traders are frauds, charlatans, and merchants of death. The distribution system is described as a disaster, accused of poisoning the nation, with regulatory authorities advocating for its complete overhaul.

Lost in this aggressive enforcement, however, is the devastating impact on thousands of law-abiding business owners who have spent years ensuring Nigerians have access to life-saving medications. The crackdown has disregarded distinctions between legitimate traders and offenders, resulting in widespread economic casualties. Instead of targeting criminals, an entire industry has come under siege.

NAFDAC claims that over 11,000 shops have been shut down for dealing in fake drugs. However, serious questions arise regarding the accuracy of this figure. The percentage of counterfeit drug dealers within the industry does not approach such an overwhelming majority. How, then, does the agency justify such mass closures? The implication that nearly every medicine shop in major markets is engaged in criminal activity appears to lack evidential grounding. Businesses built on decades of trust and integrity now face destruction under sweeping enforcement measures that seem indiscriminate and excessive.

Among the affected businesses are those operated by hardworking Nigerians dedicated to ensuring the availability of genuine medications. Many of these traders established their businesses long before NAFDAC had the capacity to regulate them. Now, without due process, their shops have been sealed, livelihoods jeopardized, and reputations tarnished.

Regulatory agencies have repeatedly condemned Nigeria’s drug distribution system as chaotic and prone to counterfeit operations. However, responsibility for this systemic failure does not lie solely with industry participants. Successive governments have neglected the need for a well-regulated pharmaceutical supply chain, failing to provide the necessary infrastructure for an efficient and transparent distribution network. Instead of addressing these shortcomings, enforcement authorities have resorted to punitive measures—blaming and penalizing those operating within a flawed system.

A government that has yet to establish a single centralized drug distribution center for over 200 million people cannot suddenly declare war on those filling the gaps left by regulatory inefficiencies. A more constructive approach would involve engaging stakeholders, designing a transition framework that ensures compliance without economic destruction, and integrating the industry rather than alienating it. Instead, dialogue has been abandoned in favor of heavy-handed enforcement.

The consequences of this approach are already evident. The disruption of supply chains has led to skyrocketing prices of essential medicines. Antibiotics, pain relievers, anti-malarials, and insulin, once affordable, have seen sharp price increases. Hospitals and pharmacies now struggle to restock, leaving patients—particularly in rural areas—with fewer treatment options. Rather than solving the problem of counterfeit drugs, these actions have exacerbated an already fragile healthcare system, making genuine medication less accessible and more expensive.

The fight against fake drugs remains a crucial public health priority. A thriving pharmaceutical industry depends on consumer trust, and the presence of counterfeit drugs threatens not just consumers but also legitimate traders. However, the current enforcement strategy, characterized by sweeping crackdowns and market raids, raises concerns about fairness and effectiveness. Sealing entire shops without concrete evidence of wrongdoing risks harming innocent businesses and weakening the sector as a whole.

Key questions remain unanswered. When a shop is sealed, what happens to the families that depend on it? Does shutting down thousands of businesses without prosecuting key offenders address the root problem? If genuine reform is the goal, why is there no structured plan? Why has dialogue with industry stakeholders been overlooked? Effective regulation must be firm yet just, ensuring accountability while protecting the livelihoods of those operating legally. Destruction cannot be the sole strategy.

It is disgraceful that the Federal Government, PCN, and NAFDAC have abandoned the Federal Government-gazetted Coordinated Wholesale Centres (CWCs) to private individuals to develop. The CWC initiative was conceived as a structured and conducive environment for pharmaceutical distribution. If effectively implemented, it would have been the most practical and strategic approach to eliminating the circulation of fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria. However, despite its immense potential to sanitize the pharmaceutical distribution network, the initiative never materialized, primarily due to the Federal Government’s reluctance to commit the necessary resources in funding, land, and infrastructure.

The establishment of CWCs was intended to centralize and regulate the wholesale distribution of medicines, thereby eliminating the infiltration of counterfeit and substandard drugs into the market. By failing to implement this vital reform—an initiative requiring approximately ₦89 billion, far beyond the capacity of individual distributors—the government has left the sector vulnerable to unscrupulous operators who exploit the current fragmented and poorly regulated system.

It is worth noting that Lagos pharmaceutical distributors took it upon themselves to fund and build a CWC, which, according to reports, is about 25% completed. Given the astronomical cost of such a project, what they have achieved is remarkable. However, rather than receiving support from state and federal authorities, they have faced deliberate obstacles aimed at stalling progress.

Suffice it to say, the government’s failure to implement the CWC policy remains the primary reason behind the continued sale and distribution of counterfeit drugs in Nigeria. The lack of a structured, government-backed wholesale framework has perpetuated an uncontrolled market where fake and substandard pharmaceuticals thrive. Rather than unfairly punishing legitimate distributors—who themselves are victims of the government’s inefficiency—the authorities should focus on rectifying their own lapses by revisiting and fully implementing the CWC policy. Only then can Nigeria truly curb the menace of fake drugs and ensure a safer pharmaceutical distribution system.

NAFDAC

If NAFDAC is truly committed to eliminating counterfeit drugs, a revised approach is necessary. Collaboration with the industry is essential. Legitimate medicine dealers should be seen as partners, not adversaries. Targeting and prosecuting offenders rather than penalizing an entire sector would yield more sustainable results. Without such adjustments, the ongoing crackdown risks becoming counterproductive, crippling the very businesses that have long ensured access to genuine medications in Nigeria.

Ademola Kizito, a public affairs commentator writes from Abuja.