The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised concerns over the growing local production of counterfeit goods in Nigeria, warning that fake-product networks are increasingly shifting manufacturing operations into the country.
According to NAFDAC, counterfeiters who previously imported fake products are now establishing production facilities and distribution networks within Nig
Martins Iluyomade, NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, said intelligence gathered by the agency showed that some foreign nationals involved in counterfeiting had begun setting up manufacturing plants and logistics operations locally.
“Before, to fake a product, you needed to go to China to bring it. Now, they are here with us,” Iluyomade said.
He said counterfeiters typically identify products that sell quickly in the Nigerian market, obtain samples and reproduce them locally.
Some of the operators also allegedly own logistics companies used to move the counterfeit products across the country.
The agency said it has intensified enforcement against counterfeiters and shut down illegal logistics facilities allegedly linked to the networks.
The development is raising fresh concerns for consumer safety because local production could allow counterfeit goods to reach markets more quickly while making the supply chains harder to trace.
Products identified by the agency include adulterated toothpaste, contaminated bottled water, fake cosmetics and unwholesome dairy products.
NAFDAC said the scale of the problem highlights the increasing sophistication of counterfeit networks operating across Nigeria’s manufacturing and distribution ecosystem.
NAFDAC Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, said the agency seized and destroyed regulated products worth more than N1.5 trillion during enforcement operations conducted in Lagos and parts of the South-East.
The agency also secured 64 convictions for counterfeit-related offences between June 2025 and June 2026, according to Adeyeye.
One of the convictions resulted in a five-year prison sentence for the operator of an illegal beverage laboratory in December.
NAFDAC said prosecutions are also ongoing against suspects arrested in Kano, Sokoto, Delta and Anambra states over the alleged importation and distribution of counterfeit oral-care products.