“Nigeria Will Not Be A Dumping Ground For GMOs,” Says National Biosafety Management Agency
Dr. Rufus Ebegba, the Director-General for the National Biosafety Management Agency, stated the agency will not let the country become a dumping ground for unregulated genetically modified organisms.
While receiving a team of Ghanaian scientists in Abuja, he explained that the agency had not been put in place to stop the use of said products, but instead, to make sure that such science and technology would not pose any form of threat to human health, the environment, animals and plants.
Read Also:
Dr. Ebegba replied that, “In the field of genetically modified organism regulation, Nigeria has set a model for the African continent as the global economy today is driven by innovations and it is high the time that citizens key into it by ensuring that safety measures are put in place for the deployment of the technology.” He further added that the Ghanaian regulators’ visit to the agency was in regards to studying the Nigerian biosafety system and putting in place regulatory policy documents as well as guidelines that would ensure proper and safe activities.
As a result, he also recognized the importance of regulating modern technologies through the relevant authorities in Ghana, calling for a collaboration with their Nigerian counterpart on the need to strengthen the regulations in Africa as stipulated by the laws that establish the agency.
He states that, “The need for the Ghanaian government to extend the scope of the regulatory framework to capture the new emerging technologies, such as gene editing, gene drive, and synthetic biology cannot be overemphasized.”
Dr. Emmanuel Marfo, the team leader and a member of the Parliament in Ghana, had earlier restated the position of Nigeria being the role model for the African continent, voicing that, both countries have a longstanding relationship, and working together on biotechnologies would boost the economies.
The efforts of Nigeria in regulating the biotechnology space had also been praised by the chairman of the Ghanaian National Biosafety Authority, Prof. Charles Boasiako.
