Food and Drugs Authority Board inaugurated
An-eleven member board has been inaugurated for the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), with a directive to the authority to stop the issuance of letters to quarantine warehouses, since that responsibility is the preserve of the Minister of Health.
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The Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, gave the directive when she inaugurated the board, chaired by Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi.
According to her, investigations by the ministry had revealed that some officials of the FDA had been writing letters to officials of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority to quarantine warehouses.
“Henceforth, that must stop,” she stressed.
She explained that the Public Health Act 851, 2012 reserved the responsibility of declaring a place to be an area for purposes of quarantine to her office.
Members of the board
The new FDA Board is made up of Dr George Ben Crentsil of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA); Dr Belinda Afriyie Nimako of the University of Health and Allied Sciences; Mr Joseph K. N. Nyoagbe, the Registrar of the Pharmacy Council; Dr Bashiru B. Kikimoto of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Togbega Dabra VI of the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Practice Council.
The rest are Mr Hudu Mogtari of the FDA; Ms Grace Ama Issahaque of the Registrar-General’s Department; Mrs Angela J. Owusu, the Deputy Head of the laboratory of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority; Professor Dominic Adotei Edoh of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Nanam Tay Dziedzeave of the Food Research Institute.
FDA’s responsibility
The FDA is responsible for ensuring that counterfeit medicines, cosmetics, food, agro and industrial chemicals, among others, do not enter the country.
Ms Ayittey tasked the board members to work together to reduce significantly the smuggling of fake food and drugs into Ghana.
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“The ministry will not tolerate counterfeit drugs. If someone takes fake drugs and dies, you cannot bring the person back to life,” she stated.
She said the old FDA board faced some challenges and had to be dissolved and expressed the hope that the new board would work in harmony and follow laid down procedures to attain excellence in regulating the country’s food and drugs.
Onerous task
Mr Quakyi described the work as onerous but indicated that the team would work hard to effectively and efficiently discharge its duties.
He said members of the board would work according to the policy directives of the ministry and within the Public Health Act,851, 2012.
“At the end of our work, we hope it will be said that we contributed to making the FDA better,” he added.
Writer’s email: naa.bentil@graphic.com.gh