The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) on Tuesday in Abuja expressed readiness to protect Nigeria from harmful biological agents.
The Director General (DG) of NBMA, Dr Rufus Ebegba, said this during a two-day biosafety and biosecurity capacity training for staff of the agency.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NBMA in collaboration with Febi International Consult Ltd. organised the capacity strengthening workshop.
Ebegba said that the agency would ensure that Genetically Modified Organisms were delivered safely in the environment and for human consumption.
“NBMA would put in good measure to ensure safety, it would also collaborate to protect the country from harmful biological agents.
“As the world is going on, we don’t doubt that the issues of terrorism might emerge, so Nigeria as a country need to be well prepared.
“So, we see ourselves as safety and economic enablers, we must stand for that and work for that,” he said.
Ebegba also stressed the need to ensure food security and safety in the country.
The DG said that the training would strengthen the capacity of the agency on what it has been doing all through the years.
The representative of Febi International Consult Ltd. Mr Franklyn Obadia, said the mandate of NBMA is more critical now than in the past.
Obadia said that the urgency to ensure biosafety and biosecurity was essential due to the prevailing threat to the climate.
He assured that the biosafety of human lives, animals and plants would be protected.
Obadia urged all stakeholders at the training to come up with additional strategic measures that would move the country to a strong level of biosafety and biosecurity.
The Director, Planning and Research, NBMA, Mrs Scholastica Bello said that issues of biosafety and biosecurity was global and very serious, and they must be treated with urgency.
”We should not allow the issues of bio to degenerate to the level of insecurity such that one will be scared of eating anything.
”The issues of biosecurity should be handled properly hence it has to do with nature,” Bello said.
She commended the Federal Government for the structures put in place to ensure that biosafety and biosecurity sectors were well protected.