From below Level 1 to Level 3: Nigeria's medicines watchdog tells its reform story at Harvard

When Professor Mojisola Adeyeye took over Nigeria's food and drug regulator, NAFDAC, in 2017, the agency sat below the World Health Organization's first maturity rung. This week she presented its climb as a case study at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health: NAFDAC now stands at WHO Maturity Level 3, holds ISO 9001 certification, has a WHO-prequalified laboratory and has digitised about 90% of its regulatory processes. The next targets are Level 4 and WHO-Listed Authority status. The stakes are plain for ordinary Nigerians: a stronger regulator means safer medicines on the shelf and a harder road for fakes.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program