Speaking in Abuja, the Director General, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, said they are subjecting the policies to internal review, saying it will be a continuous process to make them meet with the present reality.
Ebegba also explained that the aim was to ensure improvement of all the documents where necessary because the documents went through rigorous processes of development in the past nine years, “so we have to evaluate them.”
He added that they have recognised all efforts geared towards the present state of these by critical stakeholders, saying, “We are looking at the documents holistically to see if there was any need to correct any aspect of them.’’
According to him: “The essence of these review series is to ensure that they are in tandem with international norms due to the increase in scientific knowledge. These form part of efforts to ensure that the Nigerian Biosafety system is strengthened.”
The Director General; therefore, emphasised that when reviewed, it will be up to standard and to date with international best practices, adding that a lot of guidelines; frameworks/strategies have been developed over the years.
Similarly, he stated that these will help in strengthening the Nigerian Biosafety system, urging the various committees handling the exercise, which is still under drafting stage to tidy up their works and present the guidelines.
The review policies included National Biosafety Risk Analysis Framework, National Biosafety Emergency Response Strategy and National Biosafety Communication Strategy and 29 other manuals.
