The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has commenced a risk assessment training session for its staff for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
The training which is part of the mandate of NBMA became necessary following growing concerns about the safety of GMOs to humans and the environment.
The Director-General of NBMA, Dr Rufus Ebegba, while speaking at the training, said the capacity of staff of the Agency would have been built after the training to carry out risk assessment review.
“The issue of Biosafety is dynamic, so there is need for constant upgrading and strengthening of capacity and proficiency of the staff of the Agency to be able to meet the upcoming challenges and the ones we already have.
“Risk assessment, risk management and risk communication are three pillars of Biosafety Management.
“The training is on Biosafety risk assessment review. The risk assessment is basically to look at any genetically modified organisms before they are used or deployed for any purpose to consider whether those GMOs are harmful to human health or to the environment.
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“So, risk assessment is to determine whether there are harms if there are risks, to quantify the risks at various levels and also. Another thing to look at is whether there are management strategies to mitigate the risks that are associated with the organisation, if there are management strategies, the product can still be adopted.
“This training basically is to enable the staff of the Agency to be able to develop the capacity to carry out risk assessment review, because any GMOs that are being introduced, the applicant is expected to carry out the risk assessment and the dossier is very crucial to the Agency for us to review the findings to identify whether there are risks, and if there are risks, we will find out whether it can be managed.
“I believe at the end of this training, the staff of the Agency capacity would have been strengthened because it is very important they understand the issue of risk assessment because that is the major responsibility of this Agency. It is my hope that at then of this training, we will become experts in the area of risk assessment,” he noted.
Also, the Head Planning, Research and Statistics Department of NBMA, Mrs Bello Scholastica,
because of the concerns about GMOs, risk assessment is carried out to ensure that these products are safe for humans and the environment.
She said “this training is to ensure that we have a crop of young men and women who are able to effectively carry out a risk assessment so that whatever GMO is approved in Nigeria, it is 100 per cent sure to be safe for humans and the environment,” she added.
GMOs: NBMA trains staff on risk assessment
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