Management teams from Symmex Smart Workings Limited have engaged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) following an invitation from the agency to demonstrate a technology platform aimed at reshaping pharmaceutical manufacturing in Nigeria.

The Huraflow-MES innovation is Nigeria’s first indigenous, GMP-compliant Manufacturing Execution System, now under consideration for formal regulatory observation by NAFDAC to strengthen Nigeria’s pharmaceutical manufacturing ecosystem.

Speaking after the presentation of a demo of the solution to officials of NAFDAC at the Lagos office, founder of the technology solutions, Olumide Awoyemi, a pharmacist and entrepreneur, emphasised the need for Nigeria’s pharmaceutical and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturing sector to adopt the digital transformation through his startup for data integration across production processes.

He noted that their visit to NAFDAC was to get the agency’s nod for the technology as well as lead in adopting it to encourage other manufacturing agencies within the purview of NAFDAC to key into it.

“Since we launched this technology, there has been some feedback from our lead companies that they were concerned about NAFDAC’s disposition to the solution. Because if they adopt eventually, it would be the basis for their audits when the agency comes to check their records,” he said.

Awoyemi noted that the technology, which was launched in September last year, was created to digitise batch process manufacturing across pharmaceutical sector and FMCG, eliminating inefficiencies inherent in manual operations.

“In many indigenous manufacturing companies today, including pharmaceutical sectors, processes remain paper-based. Documentation takes a huge toll on time, accuracy, and compliance. So, we see this gap and decided to develop HuraFlow, a modular system that integrates the four key elements of manufacturing, materials, machines, man, and method into one digital interface,” he said.

He further stated that the technology seeks to modernise production by making real-time data accessible for quality control, compliance tracking, and regulatory inspection.

On what led to the initiative, Awoyemi revealed that the inspiration for Huraflow-MES came while he was based in London and repeatedly faced job rejections for lacking familiarity with manufacturing execution systems (MES).

“Those experiences led me to realise that such systems hardly exist in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical space,” he recounted.

“So, I decided to build one locally not just for Nigeria, but for Africa.”

While explaining how the technology works, he explained that for an agency like NAFDAC, it could help to conduct remote inspections and digital audits, a major advantage for resource-constrained regulators.

He explained that in a situation where the regulatory agency is trying to recall some products which were later discovered to cause health issues, the technology can fast-track the process; including detecting where the error occurs and conducting an investigation process which is usually extremely laborious within four hours.

Awoyemi, therefore, recommended that such digital adoption could streamline compliance and product traceability, allowing regulators to detect manufacturing discrepancies faster and respond to safety issues efficiently.

“With an electronic system, NAFDAC officers could review live batch records and audit trails before even visiting a site. That improves oversight and supports patient safety,” he explained.