Nigeria’s food safety falls through regulatory cracks as key agencies saddled with ensuring the safety of food sold in open markets shy away from responsibilities, leaving consumers exposed to chemically and potentially contaminated foods.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, and other regulatory agencies (NAFDAC) are deflecting responsibility as traders rely on toxic chemicals to ripen, preserve, and colour foods.
The result is a market where palm oil is laced with industrial dyes, garlic turns green after blending, and plantains ripen overnight have become common, deepening public distrust at a time of rising health concerns.
NAFDAC, which is conducting a nationwide clampdown on fake alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, says its role is limited to processed and semi-processed products, pesticide approval and farmer education.
“First of all, we are ignorant in this country; we do not read, we do not understand… From farm to fork, there are many organisations, there are many agencies that are involved,” Mojisola Adeyeye, director general, NAFDAC, told BusinessDay.
The agency approves and regulates pesticides and educates farmers on proper application, she said, but high illiteracy levels limit compliance.
“We cannot go to one million farmers in Nigeria. NAFDAC cannot do that. It is the Ministry of Agriculture that should be doing that,” she added.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, on its part, insists it has no inspection department for foods meant for consumption.
A senior director not authorised to speak on the issue confirmed that to BusinessDay.
Farm-to-fork vacuum
Nigeria operates a food policy that experts call a “from farm to fork” regulatory vacuum. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security oversees the farm.
NAFDAC takes over at the factory. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) protects the consumer, and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service polices the export and import of agricultural commodities.
In practice, fresh food falls between them. “We don’t control the oranges you buy in the market. We don’t have any business with that,” Adeyeye said. “NAFDAC’s mandate is for processed or semi-processed foods. It is the Ministry of Agriculture that has the primary mandate for fresh produce.”
At the Ministry of Agriculture, that mandate does not exist. “I will tell you the truth, we do not have any department with such oversight function here,” a senior director at the ministry said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak. “Farmers just produce their food and fruits and sell.”
That admission is at the heart of Nigeria’s food safety crisis. Africa’s most populous country, with 230 million people, has no agency inspecting fresh produce for human consumption.
NAQS and FCCPC did not respond to BusinessDay’s questions.
BusinessDay’s investigation across markets in Abuja, Lagos and Kano shows how this vacuum is exploited daily.
Food system ‘under attack’
The regulatory failure has prompted calls for a wholesale reform of Nigeria’s food safety architecture.
Qrisstuberg Amua, professor and executive director of the Centre for Food Safety and Agricultural Research (CEFSAR), said the ecosystem is under severe strain.
“The Nigerian food ecosystem is under attack, under war. And you can see the direct impact in our health care facilities, in our general population; people are walking about, but they are not healthy, they are sick,” Amua said.
He called for a forensic review of NAFDAC’s structure and powers, arguing that concentrating food and drug regulation in one agency leaves the country exposed.
“NAFDAC actually needs to come under a very serious high-resolution electron microscope to examine what is happening at NAFDAC, and a conversation needs to be engendered, and perhaps our organisation will have to engender that,” he said.
“If the work is too big for NAFDAC, just like it happens in other climes, we will have to split NAFDAC, and I think it will help the country, because combining food and drug administration in one space, and putting so much enforcement and regulatory powers in NAFDAC makes Nigeria overexposed in such a manner that once there is an incidence of institutional capture, like NAFDAC is captured, everything goes down the drain.”
Amua alleged that the agency’s registration system has become commercialised. He warned that self-regulation is failing. “But in the scenario now that NAFDAC does the testing itself, and regulates itself, when NAFDAC falters, I wonder who regulates NAFDAC,” Amua said. “Perhaps that may be one of the reasons why there is so much passing under the radar, and NAFDAC’s radar never seems to be catching it.”
Adebukola Omidiran, senior lecturer in food science and technology at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, said the issue of food regulation has been poor implementation.
“The regulators must work together to effectively regulate the food system and tackle the issues of food safety,” Omidiran said.
Market fears and health costs
The concerns come as Nigerians report unusual produce and link it to rising illnesses.
Uchenna Uju, a public servant in Abuja, said she stopped buying oranges after noticing unusual size and taste.
“I’m now so scared of buying fruits from traders. I noticed that these oranges are bigger and really sweet. Instead of enjoying them, I’m afraid they are being injected with chemicals,” she said.
Mary Dike, a teacher at Mile 12 Market to make purchase, said she is afraid to buy palm oil from the open market after watching a video of palm oil colouring. “I sent money to my people in Anambra to buy me palm oil from the village and weighbill it to me in Lagos.” “I won’t be buying palm oil from Lagos anytime soon.”
Medical professionals said excess additives pose risks.
“Most of the foods we see in open markets and even supermarkets have additives to keep them fresh,” said Donald Ugo, a doctor at Wuse General Hospital.
“While these additives are not totally harmful, there is an allowed amount. When these additives get to traders who do not know how they should be used, they can use them in excess.”
Unlike Kenya, which introduced rapid aflatoxin testing at major markets, or Ghana, which has market food safety officers, Nigeria has zero routine chemical testing in its 774 local government areas.
Until that gap is bridged, the chemical chain continues from farm to chemical market and to the table, with no one taking responsibility to stop it.
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