The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has once again turned its enforcement spotlight on the sprawling Trade Fair Complex in Ojo, Lagos, shutting several shops and business premises suspected of trading in unregistered cosmetic products.
The agency announced the action in a statement posted to its official X account on Saturday, August 29, 2026, detailing a two-day sting carried out by its Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, Cosmetics Division, on August 26 and 27.
According to NAFDAC, the exercise was targeted, not a blanket sweep. Officers moved on specific shops within the complex believed to be stocking cosmetic products that had not passed through the agency’s registration process.
Once identified, the affected premises were padlocked and slapped with the agency’s signature “NAFDAC HOLD” labels, a marker that freezes further sale or movement of goods pending the outcome of investigations.
Investigators also collected samples of the suspected products, which will now undergo laboratory and regulatory assessment to determine their safety and authenticity. Meanwhile, invitation letters have gone out to the owners and operators of the shuttered businesses, summoning them to appear before the agency for questioning and whatever regulatory proceedings follow.
Among the businesses named by NAFDAC:
- Vincentmo World, opposite Bmeck Plaza, Private Plaza
- Amazon City of Fragrance, Shops 37 & 38, Beauty Promise Land Plaza
- Aza-King Store Perfumes, opposite Fidelity Bank
- PP2 & Fragrance Int’l Ltd. Design Perfumes & Cosmetics
- No. D12 Fragrance Doctor Shop, Abia Plaza
- God & Obaino Fragrance Store, opposite Wave Plaza
NAFDAC noted that these were not the only outlets affected; “other identified shops and business premises” within the complex were also caught up in the operation, though the agency did not name them individually.
The Trade Fair Complex is no ordinary shopping arcade. Stretched along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway in Ojo, it is one of the largest commercial hubs in Lagos State, a sprawling maze of plazas and stalls where thousands of traders deal in everything from textiles and electronics to imported perfumes and cosmetics.
Its sheer scale and the volume of goods that pass through it daily, has made it a recurring flashpoint in NAFDAC’s ongoing war against substandard and unregistered products.
This latest raid is far from an isolated incident. Barely six months ago, in February 2026, NAFDAC announced it had uncovered counterfeit and unregistered cosmetics worth more than ₦3 billion stashed inside an uncompleted building at the same complex a haul that included hundreds of cartons of soap brands banned by the Federal Government.
Days before that, on February 10, the agency reported seizing over 10 million doses of fake malaria drugs alongside cosmetics valued at roughly ₦3 billion, again at the Trade Fair Market.
The pattern extends beyond cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. In April, NAFDAC dismantled two illegal outlets in Lagos State involved in counterfeiting and adulterating alcoholic beverages, seizing products worth an estimated ₦350 million, a reminder that the state’s informal manufacturing and trading networks stretch well beyond any single product category.
For NAFDAC, the recurring raids at the Trade Fair Complex underscore a persistent regulatory headache: despite repeated enforcement actions, unregistered and counterfeit goods keep resurfacing in the same commercial corridors.
Unregistered cosmetics, in particular, pose a public health risk that goes beyond simple consumer fraud; many such products are manufactured without oversight of their chemical composition, raising the possibility of skin damage, toxic reactions, or long-term health complications for unsuspecting buyers.
For traders at the complex, the crackdown is a fresh reminder that doing business there increasingly means operating under the shadow of regulatory scrutiny, with the threat of padlocked shopfronts, seized stock, and formal interrogation never far away.
Whether this latest round of seals and summonses translates into lasting change or simply another entry in a long list of enforcement actions at the same location remains to be seen. NAFDAC has given no timeline for when or whether the affected shops will be permitted to reopen.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
NAFDAC has once again shut shops at Lagos’s Trade Fair Complex over unregistered cosmetics, but this is the same location it raided in February for a ₦3 billion counterfeit haul. The real story isn’t the seizure itself, it’s the repetition: enforcement keeps happening at the same site without stopping the trade.
For consumers, the takeaway is simple cosmetics bought from unverified outlets in markets like this carry real health risks, since unregistered products aren’t checked for safety.
