Thursday, November 13, 2025 | A bill to regulate herbal medicine, commonly known as ‘agbo’ in Nigeria, has scaled the second reading in the House of Representatives. Sponsored by Hon. Jesse Okey-Joe Onuakalusi, this bill aims to amend the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Act to:
- Regulate herbal drugs.
- Protect consumers from harmful products.
- Promote quality standards.
This marks a significant step towards ensuring the safety, efficacy, and quality of traditional medicine in Nigeria by bringing it under formal regulatory oversight.
Key Highlights of the Bill
The bill, officially titled “A Bill for an Act to Amend the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control Act, Cap. N1, Laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004 to include the Regulation of Herbal Drugs (AGBO) and for Related Matters,” (HB. 2300), includes the following key proposals:
- Primary Intent To explicitly empower NAFDAC to regulate the production, sale, and use of herbal medicines, addressing a regulatory gap in the current Act.
- Organizational Change Mandate the creation of a dedicated Department for Herbal Medicine Regulation within NAFDAC to specialize in this sector.
- Advisory Structure Establish a Traditional Medicine Advisory Committee to provide expert guidance to NAFDAC on standardization and documentation of indigenous medicinal knowledge.
- Safety and Quality Introduce standards to stop the production of herbal products under unhygienic conditions and without dosage control, clinical testing, or safety certification.
- Enforcement Introduce specific penalties for the production or sale of unregistered or unsafe herbal products.
- Transitional Compliance Grant a 12-month transitional period for existing traditional medicine practitioners to register their products and comply with the new required standards.
- National Benefit To strengthen public health, promote the scientific validation of indigenous medicine, and enable Nigeria to tap into the global herbal medicine market
The bill is driven by concerns over public health risks (poisoning, organ damage) resulting from the consumption of unregulated herbal concoctions. While NAFDAC has existing regulations for herbal products (e.g., Herbal Medicine and Related Products (Registration) Regulations, 2021), the sponsor argues this bill is necessary to provide a stronger, explicit legal mandate within the main NAFDAC Act for robust enforcement. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on NAFDAC.
