NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, says the agency is operating with a critical manpower shortfall that affects its ability to regulate food and drug products nationwide. She says Nigeria has about 2,000 NAFDAC staff serving more than 240 million people, which she describes as chronically inadequate for effective oversight. Adeyeye compares the situation with Indonesia, where she says a similar-sized regulatory system has around 20,000 personnel for roughly 280 million people, to highlight the scale of the gap. She adds that NAFDAC is not asking to mirror Indonesia’s staffing levels, but argues that it needs at least 5,000 additional staff to strengthen operations across the country. Adeyeye also notes that the current workforce is stretched thin, making it difficult for the agency to maintain a physical presence everywhere. In addition to manpower, she calls for improved funding for the Federal Task Force created under the C34 Bill of 2004, saying it has reportedly received no financial support since inception. She says discussions with the Minister of Finance and the Federal Government are underway to address both staffing and funding constraints.