Many people didn’t like the Zoom meetings I introduced because they were used to getting travelling allowances – NAFDAC DG

The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has highlighted how she is cutting expenses ‘to the bone’ at the parastatal.

She said she neutralised a lot of travelling expenses by introducing zoom meetings, which many of the workers did not like.

“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 because it they were used to getting travel allowances and DTAs. But we had to save,” Adeyeye said on Friday during an interview with ‘Channels Television’.

She recalled that things were so dicey for NAFDAC when she took over that, by that 2017, she inherited a debt of N3.2 billion when she took over.

According to her, N500 million was unaccounted for, during her interview on Channels Television’s programme, Inside Sources.

Adeyeye noted that if such financial loss had happened in developed climes like the United States, the agency would have been “declared bankrupt and a financial house would have taken over the management of our finances.”

The NAFDAC boss said, “When I got to NAFDAC, I met N3.2b debt, and N500m missing and there was no account for it before I came.

“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 N500m. 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.”

She acknowledged that Nigeria is a blessed nation with “enough endowment” to facilitate improved development.

Adeyeye also recalled how she reduced the high expenses by some officials of the agency, citing the introduction of technological applications like Zoom, to cut travel expenses.

She noted, “My point is that we have enough endowment in this country to make things better, and I am using NAFDAC as an example.”