National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says Chinese counterfeiters have begun establishing manufacturing plants and logistics networks in Nigeria to produce and distribute fake products.
Gatekeepers News reports that Martins Iluyomade, NAFDAC’s director of investigation and enforcement, said intelligence gathered by the agency showed that counterfeit operations had shifted from importing fake products from China to manufacturing and distributing them locally.
He said the syndicates identify products that are already moving in the Nigerian market, send samples to China and then distribute the counterfeit versions locally through logistics companies they allegedly own.
Iluyomade said NAFDAC had started systematically shutting down illegal logistics facilities operated by foreign nationals allegedly linked to the networks.
The agency said the counterfeit products include adulterated toothpaste, contaminated bottled water, fake cosmetics and unwholesome dairy products.
Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC director-general, said the agency had confiscated and destroyed regulated products worth more than N1.5 trillion during coordinated enforcement operations in Lagos and the South-East.
She added that NAFDAC secured 64 convictions against counterfeiters between June 2025 and June 2026, describing the figure as the highest recorded by the agency. One of the convictions resulted in a five-year prison sentence for an operator of an illegal beverage laboratory.
NAFDAC also said legal proceedings are ongoing against suspects arrested in Kano, Sokoto, Delta and Anambra states over the importation and distribution of fake oral-care products.
