Nigeria has continued to remain a major distribution hub for counterfeit, falsified and substandard medicines despite years of enforcement operations, repeated raids and seizures worth more than N1.1 trillion.

BusinessDay’s analysis of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) enforcement records between 2023 and 2025 shows that the agency has repeatedly returned to the same pharmaceutical distribution hubs despite years of arrests and product seizures.

Among the most prominent markets are Bridge Head Market in Onitsha, Eziukwu (Cemetery) Market in Aba, Idumota Open Drug Market and the Trade Fair Complex in Lagos.

These markets are not ordinary retail centres. They serve as some of Nigeria’s largest pharmaceutical distribution hubs, supplying medicines to pharmacies, patent medicine vendors and informal drug sellers across the country.

Same markets, different raids

Between 2023 and 2025, Eziukwu (Cemetery) Market in Aba remained one of the country’s biggest hotspots for counterfeit-drug enforcement.

In December 2023, NAFDAC uncovered more than 40 illegal factories producing counterfeit beverages and destroyed fake products valued at about N750 million.

The following year, the agency launched “Operation Clean Up Aba,” uncovering widespread falsification of expiry dates on baby formula and other consumer products. More than 150 shops were sealed while fake and expired products worth about N5 billion were confiscated.

Rather than ending the illegal trade, enforcement intensified in 2025 as Aba again featured prominently in NAFDAC’s nationwide crackdown on counterfeit medicines, contributing to seizures valued at more than N1 trillion.

A similar enforcement pattern emerged in Lagos.

In 2023, intelligence-led raids at Idumota Open Drug Market targeted traders suspected of distributing controlled and unregistered medicines. Drug shops and warehouses were sealed after regulators said they discovered medicines that should never have been circulating through open markets.

Attention shifted to the Trade Fair Complex in 2024, where investigations uncovered counterfeit and unregistered consumer products and other regulated goods.

By 2025, both markets had once again become major enforcement targets.

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NAFDAC identified Idumota as part of a distribution network responsible for supplying more than 80 per cent of medicines across Nigeria.

During the February operation, the agency screened and sealed 3,027 shops, warehouses and packing stores, uncovering counterfeit, expired, unregistered and improperly stored medicines, including banned Analgin injections, diverted antiretroviral drugs and vaccines stored under unsanitary conditions.

The operation also led to the evacuation of 27 truckloads of suspected illicit pharmaceuticals from Idumota, making Lagos one of the largest seizure points during the nationwide crackdown.

At the Trade Fair Complex, regulators seized more than 10,000 cartons of unregistered tomato paste, cosmetics, soaps, body sprays, air fresheners and other regulated products during a five-day enforcement operation, highlighting the market’s expanding role in the distribution of counterfeit and unsafe goods.

BusinessDay found that the repeated appearance of the same markets in successive enforcement operations points to a deeper structural problem.

While counterfeit products are routinely seized and destroyed, the commercial networks responsible for importing, financing and distributing them appear to remain largely intact.

Interviews with traders, pharmaceutical distributors and industry stakeholders indicate that medicines entering these markets typically pass through multiple layers of wholesalers before reaching retailers, making their origins increasingly difficult to trace once they enter the supply chain.

“It is not a system where everyone knows where every product comes from. A carton can change hands several times before it reaches the final seller. By then, tracking the source becomes extremely difficult,” said Folake Adewunmi, a pharmaceutical distributor familiar with operations in one of the major markets.

Another trader involved in medicine distribution at Trade Fair Market said enforcement operations often focus on products recovered during raids rather than those financing and coordinating the wider distribution network.

“When regulators close shops, many traders lose their stock. But the bigger challenge is finding those behind the supply chain. If the suppliers are not disrupted, products eventually find their way back into the market,” she said.
For public health experts, that recurring pattern helps explain why the same markets continue to feature in enforcement operations despite years of increasingly large seizures.

Deadly cost of the thriving illegal trade

The persistence of Nigeria’s counterfeit drug trade carries consequences far beyond regulatory violations.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), substandard and falsified medicines contribute to an estimated 116,000 additional malaria deaths annually across sub-Saharan Africa, while poor-quality antibiotics are linked to between 72,000 and 169,000 childhood pneumonia deaths each year.

The problem extends beyond Nigeria’s borders and is compounded by the sophisticated trafficking networks that move illicit pharmaceuticals across West Africa.

A 2023 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that more than 605 tonnes of medical products were seized in West Africa between 2017 and 2021, with most shipments arriving through legitimate international trade channels, particularly by sea.

The report noted that many of the products originated from major exporting countries, including China, India, Belgium and France, before being diverted into illegal supply chains in the region.

According to the UNODC, counterfeit and substandard medicines are moved across West Africa through established trade and transport routes, exploiting porous borders and weak regulatory oversight.

The UN warned that the region has become a major redistribution hub for illicit goods, allowing falsified medicines to spread from ports and commercial centres into local markets and across the Sahel.

Researchers described fake and substandard medicines as one of the most serious threats to public health in low- and middle-income countries. Nigeria bears a significant share of that burden.

The trillion-naira crackdown

BusinessDay’s review of NAFDAC annual reports, enforcement disclosures and regulatory statements shows that the agency has intensified anti-counterfeit operations in recent years, destroying increasingly large volumes of falsified, substandard and expired products.

In its 2023 annual report, NAFDAC disclosed that it destroyed substandard and falsified medical products, unwholesome foods, unsafe cosmetics and other counterfeit regulated products worth more than N21.1 billion during the year. The agency described the exercise as part of its efforts to curb the circulation of dangerous products and safeguard public health.

The following year, enforcement activities continued across the country. NAFDAC’s 2024 annual report shows that the agency expanded surveillance, inspections and post-marketing monitoring activities while sustaining enforcement operations targeting counterfeit and unregistered products. The report also recorded dozens of product recalls and public alerts issued to protect consumers from unsafe medicines and other regulated products. Products worth N55.7 billion were confiscated and destroyed that year.

But it was the 2025 operation that dwarfed previous interventions.

In February 2025, NAFDAC enforcement teams simultaneously targeted the country’s largest open-drug markets, and the operation led to the closure of more than 11,000 shops and the evacuation of 138 truckloads of medicines suspected to be counterfeit, expired, improperly stored or unregistered, with an estimated value of more than N1 trillion.

Measured by the value of products seized, it was one of the biggest anti-counterfeit operations in Nigeria’s history.

Billions spent, yet no breakthrough

Over the past four years, BusinessDay Investigations found that the federal government continued to allocate resources to NAFDAC for personnel, overheads, laboratory upgrades, surveillance operations, enforcement activities and regulatory reforms.

The agency also expanded its internal revenue base through registration fees and other regulatory charges.
NAFDAC’s 2024 annual report showed overhead spending of N12.4 billion in 2025 and N13 billion in 2026, while capital allocations were projected at N7.45 billion and N7.82 billion, respectively.

Beyond funding, the agency invested heavily in modernising its regulatory systems.

In 2024 alone, NAFDAC upgraded its registered-drug database, dossier management system, laboratory information management systems and product-monitoring platforms.

It also pursued the WHO’s highest regulatory maturity benchmarks, a process aimed at strengthening oversight across the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Despite these investments, findings by this paper show that the same distribution hubs continue to surface in enforcement operations.

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Trillions seized, few prosecuted

For NAFDAC, this paper observed that seizures are often the most visible measure of success. Truckloads of counterfeit medicines are confiscated, warehouses are sealed, and destruction exercises are held before television cameras.

An analysis of the agency’s enforcement records suggested that the number of criminal cases pursued has not kept pace with the scale of the illegal trade being uncovered.

In 2023, NAFDAC conducted 3,486 investigations and 26,453 surveillance operations and destroyed counterfeit products worth over N21.1 billion, but filed only four court cases despite the scale of violations uncovered.

Similarly, NAFDAC conducted 1,724 investigations and 19,204 surveillance operations in 2024 but filed only 20 court cases and secured six convictions.

NAFDAC arrested 114 suspects during major raids in 2025, but BusinessDay found that only 16 cases proceeded to prosecution.

Slow implementation mars enforcement

The Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act criminalises the manufacture, importation, sale and distribution of fake, adulterated and substandard medicines, with offenders liable to fines, imprisonment, or both.

The law empowers regulators to seize, confiscate and destroy offending products and prosecute those responsible.
Despite the existence of these laws, experts argued that enforcement has not always translated into meaningful deterrence.

Public-health advocates and pharmaceutical industry stakeholders interviewed pointed to a recurring gap between the scale of violations uncovered and the number of successful prosecutions secured.

Olumide Akintayo, a former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), said recurring counterfeit-drug seizures reflect deeper flaws in the distribution system.

He argued that open drug markets remain major channels for fake medicines despite years of reform efforts, noting that slow implementation of the National Drug Distribution Guidelines has allowed counterfeit products to continue infiltrating legitimate supply chains.

Beyond the raids

Akintayo stressed that breaking the counterfeit-drug cycle will require more than periodic seizures.

The pharmacist questioned whether current penalties are sufficient to deter offenders, noting that traders dealing in products worth billions often face sanctions that amount to little more than a business expense.

The former PSN president said Nigeria must move beyond raids by fully implementing the National Drug Distribution Guidelines, relocating medicine trading to regulated wholesale centres and imposing tougher sanctions, including asset forfeiture, on major counterfeit-drug offenders.

On his part, Olumide Obube, a public health researcher and pharmacist, attributed the problem to porous borders, fragmented supply chains, weak traceability systems and the continued operation of informal drug markets.

While commending NAFDAC’s enforcement efforts, Obube said lasting progress would require stronger prosecutions, stricter supply-chain controls, improved product-tracking systems and the full implementation of regulated medicine distribution centres.

Despite multiple attempts to obtain NAFDAC’s response, including emails and phone calls to the agency’s spokesperson before publication, no response was received as of press time.