Mojisola Adeyeye, the director-general (DG) of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), says she inherited a debt of N3.2 billion when she took over the agency’s affairs.
Adeyeye spoke on Friday during an interview on Channels
Television’s programme, Inside Sources, anchored by Laolu Akande.
In 2017, Adeyeye took over as the DG of NAFDAC from Ademola
Magbojuri, who was acting as the head of the agency.
Magbojuri replaced Yetunde Oni, who served in an acting
capacity for 18 months after the sack of Paul Orhii, the then substantive
NAFDAC DG.
Orhii was removed after allegations of financial
misappropriation were levelled against him while at the helms of affairs of the
agency.
“When I got to NAFDAC, I met N3.2 billion debt and N500
million missing, and there was no account for it before I came,” Adeyeye said.
“I asked them if they had capital projects they used the
money for. Bear in mind that at that time, N1 million was equivalent to $2,000.
So multiply $2,000 by N500 million.
“I was coming from
the US, where money was hard to get. You worked hard for your money. I could
have given up, but I saw an opportunity, and I seized it.
“It was tough because if that had happened in the US, NAFDAC
would have been declared bankrupt, and a financial house would have taken over
the management of our finances. But I didn’t have money to hire a financial
house.”
Adeyeye said she reduced the high expenses by some officials
of the agency, including resorting to the use of Zoom for meetings, to cut
travel expenses.
“My point is that we have enough endowment in this country
to make things better, and I am using NAFDAC as an example,” she said.
“I said I was going
to cut to the bone. I am going to be using technology to ensure that our system
moves on.
“We started Zoom meetings in 2018. Many people didn’t like
it because they were used to getting travel allowances and DTAs. But we had to
save.”
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