The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a warning over the market’s overabundance of “dangerous” and “unregulated” bleaching creams in the market.

The NAFDAC Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, stated this on Wednesday during her opening address at the North-Central Zonal Sensitisation Workshop on the Dangers of ‘Bleaching Creams and Regulatory Control’, which was held in Jos, Plateau State.

Adeyeye urged Nigerian women to be proud of their skin colour, saying, “There’s no need to bleach.”

A World Health Organisation 2018 study revealed that use of skin bleaching creams was prevalent among 77 per cent of Nigerian women which was highest in Africa compared to 59 per cent in Togo, 35 per cent in South Africa and 27 per cent women in Senegal.

“This scary statistic has shown that the menace of bleaching creams in Nigeria has become a national health emergency that requires a multi-faced regulatory approach. Part of the multi-pronged approach is consultative/sensitisation meetings such as this and heightened raids on distribution outlets of bleaching creams”, she said.