By Abdallah el-Kurebe, Editor
The Director General of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus Ebegba has emerged the interim Chairman of the newly established African Union Biosafety Regulators Forum.
Ebegba’s emergence was part of the resolutions reached at the end of a training organized by the African Union and African Union Development Agency-NEPAD on genome edition and the post UN Biodiversity Conference 2018 Review Meeting for African biosafety regulators in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Friday.
Members said the establishment of the forum at the end of the training and the adoption of Dr. Ebegba is a landmark achievement in the stride for African to attain excellent biosafety levels in the regulation of modern biotechnology and its products on the continent.
In the 4 years since the establishment of NBMA, Dr. Ebegba has piloted its affairs, leading to the establishment of a boisterous Nigerian biosafety system, seen as a model and replicated across other African countries.
He ensured the establishment of a state-of-the-art genetic modification and detection laboratory, which has trained and played host to scientists and students from every corner of Africa.
He has spear-headed the collaboration between NBMA and agencies such as NAFDAC, Customs, Quarantine Service and Standards Organisation of Nigeria to protect the country from dumping ground for GMOs and ensure that Nigerians and Nigeria reaped the benefits of the products of modern biotechnology.
Dr. Ebegba dedicated his emergence as the interim Chairman of the newly established African Union Biosafety Regulators Forum to his country Nigeria and commended the Federal Ministry of Environment and President Muhammadu Buhari for the support given to the NBMA to excel.
