Leadership (Abuja)
David Apeh
11 October 2007
The director-general of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Dora Akunyili, has said that Nigeria is the first African nation to achieve universal salt iodisation (USI) through government's political commitment.
The director-general disclosed this at a 3-day international conference on bioethical medicines in Ukraine.
According to a statement from NAFDAC headquarters signed by the head public relation, Abubakar Jimoh and made available to LEADERSHIP, the director-general was quoted as saying that Nigeria has a lot to teach Ukraine and other less successful countries having recorded 98 per cent household access to adequate iodized salt since 1998 and reduction of goitre rate from 20 per cent in 1993 to 6 per cent in 2007.
Prof. Akunyili identified NAFDAC's national network of decentralised monitoring system, efficient ultra-modern analytical laboratory, sanitised salt market, strict inspection and enforcement of USI laws as some of the agency's accomplishment.
According to her, the agency recently banned salt produced in 25kg sacks and gave the industry till December 2007 to package salt in small retail sizes (1Kg) to enhance retention of iodine.
To sustain Nigeria's enviable USI status, she noted, institutionalised monitoring of salt iodine levels, annual goitre prevalence and urinary iodine excretion surveys, social marketing of iodized salts in local salt producing communities were necessary, she said.
With a dismal 17 per cent household access to iodized salt in Ukraine, Professor Akunyili said the country can do better on USI implementation by adopting the aforementioned strategies and institutionalizing at various levels of government, adequate monitoring and quality control of iodized salt production, marketing and consumption.
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