The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says Nigeria’s counterfeit goods crisis has taken a troubling new turn, with Chinese nationals allegedly behind fake products now operating directly inside the country instead of shipping counterfeits in from abroad.
NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Martins Iluyomade, disclosed this in an interview with The PUNCH in Lagos on Monday.
According to Iluyomade, investigations show that Chinese counterfeiters who once operated purely from outside Nigeria have now set up manufacturing plants and logistics networks within the country.
“Before, to fake a product, you needed to go to China to bring it. Now, you don’t need to go. They are here with us. They are the ones who will identify the product that will be moving, send it to their country, and then come here and distribute it to our people without having to travel,” he said.
Calling it a new trend driving the severity of the fake goods problem, Iluyomade said NAFDAC’s findings show that the Chinese counterfeiters own the logistics companies used to move the fake products — outfits the agency has since begun shutting down.
NAFDAC also confirmed it has received numerous complaints through its official channels over counterfeit toothpaste, particularly fake Oral B and Colgate brands.
“We have an intelligence report on fake toothpastes and have been working on it. We’ve made a lot of arrests and seizures, both in Kano and Sokoto states, Delta State and Onitsha in Anambra State,” Iluyomade said.
He revealed that two suspects are currently being prosecuted in court for importing fake toothpaste brands.
On the agency’s broader enforcement record, Iluyomade said NAFDAC recorded 64 convictions between June 2025 and June 2026 — the highest in its history. He added that in December, a judge sentenced the operators of one counterfeit drinks lab to five years in prison after convicting them on all eight counts.
NAFDAC has faced mounting pressure in recent months, with manufacturers, medical experts and economists raising alarm over the scale of counterfeit and substandard products in Nigerian markets, warning that the trend is crippling legitimate businesses, endangering consumers, and hurting the economy.
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