TFDA leads the pack, becomes first to get ISO certification

BERNARD LUGONGO

DEPUTY Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Faustine Ndugulile, launches ISO 9001; 2015 awarded to Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority(TFDA) for standard operating procedures at an event held at the authority’s offices located at Mabibo along Nelson Mandela Expressway in Dar es Salaam, yesterday. Left is the Director General of Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) Prof Egid Mubofu, and the Chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Board, Dr Ben Moses. Right is TFDA Director General, Mr Hiiti Sillo. (Photo by Mohamed Mambo)

TANZANIA Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) has become the first quality regulator for medicines and foods in the East African region to scoop International Standards Organisation award certificate (ISO 9001:2015).

This makes the authority second among all in the Sub Saharan Africa to get that award after Ghana. The good news was availed yesterday in Dar es Salaam at a brief ceremony to welcome and launch the application of the certificate to TFDA’s operations.

Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children Deputy Minister Faustine Ndugulile graced the event held at the TFDA’s headquarters in the city.

Giving highlights on the certificate, the TFDA Director General, Hiiti Sillo, said the ISO awarded the authority in August this year after being satisfied with the regulator’s quality management system and standard operating procedures, thus meeting international standard benchmark.

To get the certificate, the TFDA has fulfilled the directive by the EAC cabinet ministers, wanting that by June 2017 all such regulators in the member countries should have acquired the document.

“Upon acquiring this certificate, it means that we are going to maintain openness in all our services,” he said. All services are connected to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for better record management. Representatives from over 15 countries have come to the country to learn from the TFDA in the past 14 years.

He told the Deputy Minister that the authority has enhanced control of importation of falsified and substan dard drugs in the country by stationing its inspectors in all 11 borders.

In his remarks, Dr Ndugulile informed the public that by end of this year, the government will introduce Standard Treatment Guidelines which would guide the prescription of a kind of drug for a kind of disease.

This comes after the fact that some businesspeople were persuading the hospitals to purchase different kind of medicine for a particular disease, a situation leading to supply of several types of drug for the same disease.

Speaking over the ISO 9001 certificate to the TFDA, he said it was great achievement because now the service provision procedures of the authority are known worldwide. This ranges from the way they welcome the customers, attend them and keep the records.

He challenged the TFDA to up efforts on controlling counterfeit cosmetics and food products since they are still largely imported. Chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Board, Dr Ben Moses, promised the Deputy Minister that the regulator will work on his directives to strengthen measures on controlling substandard cosmetics and food products.