The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) of Ghana through the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) has called on the government to fund the regulation operations of the Authority.

They made this call as part of the 2022 evaluation visits currently being conducted by SIGA on the 63 Specified Entities (SEs) it signed performance contract with.  The SIGA delegation was led by Mr. Joseph Sarpong, Manager, Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, in charge of the Regulations.

The CEO of FDA, Dr. Delese Mimi Darko, in her remarks, stated that the FDA would like to cover the four (4) remaining regions in addition to the 12 regions they are already in if  they receive funding from government. She further explained that per their mandate, the FDA is supposed to be in all 16 regions of Ghana and in all 216 districts. “ We believe that our presence in all the regions and districts will enhance health and safety”, she stated.

The mission of the FDA is to ensure the safety, quality, and efficacy of human and veterinary drugs, food, biological products, cosmetics, medical devices, household chemical substances, and clinical trials, and the control of tobacco products through the enforcement of relevant standards to protect public health.

The Director of Finance of FDA, Mr. Nicholas Agbomadzi added that the Authority needs resources to recruit personnel if they are to cover all regions and districts. “We need money to rent regional and district offices and to recruit staff”,

We hope that government will learn best practices around the world where regulatory activities are funded by the State. In Ghana, the government retains 30% of our IGF which imparts adversely on our operations, instead it is our wish that government will add to the IGF we generate to ensure that we deliver on our mandate.

Mr. Agbomadzi, therefore, asked SIGA to advice government on the need to assist FDA with extra funding in addition to retaining all its IGF.