US embassy cable - 03LAGOS2163

UNCLAS LAGOS 002163 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
STATE FOR EB/DMALAC AND OES/HLEE 
 
 
USDA FOR FAS/OA/BSIMMONS AND APHIS/BRS/JTURNER 
 
 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR JLEWIS 
 
 
STATE PASS TO FDA FOR RLAKE 
 
 
EPA FOR JANDERSEN 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR, ECON, ETRD, SENV, TBIO, TSPL, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: STATUS OF BIOTECHNOLOGY REGULATIONS 
 
REF: STATE 263456 
 
 
1. (U) Nigeria has no specific law governing the 
approval, production, importation, and labeling of 
products of agricultural biotechnology.  Nigeria's 
Draft Biosafety Guidelines state proposed procedures to 
follow to import or test GMO in the country. 
 
 
2. (U) In February 2002 the Nigerian Federal Executive 
Council, comprising the president and the federal 
government ministers, approved the Draft Biosafety 
Guidelines.  They have yet to be submitted to the 
National Assembly for enactment.  We have learned that 
the guidelines portray biotech products as generally 
safe for animal and human consumption.  The guidelines 
reportedly also require mandatory labeling of all 
biotech food products to protect "consumers' right to 
know". 
 
 
3. (U) Comment: Nigeria's Director General (DG) of the 
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and 
Control (NAFDAC) recently told the AgAttache that 
"after attending a biotech conference in Europe, she 
agrees with a mandatory labeling for biotech food 
products".  NAFDAC has a representative on the National 
Biosafety Committee.  AgAttache countered with a brief 
explanation of the U.S. position on biotechnology and 
gave the DG a recent article highlighting its positive 
attributes.  It is not clear to us if she will 
reconsider her position. (NAFDAC is the GON's 
regulatory agency for the registration, advertisement, 
and internal distribution of food imports.) 
 
 
4. (U) We were also told that the Federal Ministry of 
Environment may become the regulatory agency for 
biosafety guidelines, if approved.  (Comment: We 
understand the Ministry is not enthusiastic about 
biotechnology.  We would thus be rather surprised were 
it to become its regulator; moreover, various 
parliamentary and executive government committees, as 
well as private sector entities, have diverging 
interests in the matter.  The GON's intergovernmental 
and interagency mechanism for handling biotech issues, 
the National Biosafety Committee, has 18 members, for 
example.  We therefore think NAFDAC will ultimately be 
empowered to regulate the biotech trade.  End comment.) 
 
 
GREGOIRE