DIRECTOR-GENERAL and Chief Executive Officer (DG/CEO) of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, has received the Special African Leadership Commendation Award at the 16th African Business Leadership Awards held at the Cholmondeley Room and Terrace, House of Lords, Palace of Westminster, London.
Arogidigbanews,com reports that the recognition was presented on 3 July 2026 by the Global Advisory Board of the African Leadership Organisation, publisher of African Leadership Magazine, following what it described as a rigorous, merit based screening and vetting process spanning several years during which Prof. Adeyeye’s leadership trajectory and institutional impact were independently tracked and assessed by an international panel.
In a release, NAFDAC stated that when Prof. Adeyeye assumed office on 30 November 2017, the agency had an inherited debt of more than N3.2 billion.
It also stated that between 70 and 80 percent of equipment across its seven laboratories was non-functional, the agency had no inspection vehicles, staff morale had declined following repeated industrial strikes, no director had a NAFDAC issued laptop, digitisation was absent and was rated below the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Benchmarking Maturity Level 1.
The release also added that within her first year, Prof. Adeyeye cleared more than N3.1 billion of the inherited debt after discovering that N200million of it was fictitious and added that she procured more than 150 utility vehicles, invested more than N7 billion in laboratory equipment, equipped more than half of the agency’s workforce of over 2,000 with laptops and desktop computers, digitised 90 percent of regulatory processes and introduced standard operating procedures across all functions.
It adds that NAFDAC achieved ISO 9001 certification in 2019 and has maintained it through recertification.
According to the release, NAFDAC attained WHO Global Benchmarking Maturity Level 3 in March 2022 and was successfully rebenchmarked in June 2025.