Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, has stated that the Federal Government is actively working to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign pharmaceutical imports.
Experts in the pharmaceutical field have pointed out that Nigeria’s healthcare sector remains highly exposed due to the fact that 70 percent of medicines used in the country are imported.
Nevertheless, the Minister emphasized that President Bola Tinubu’s government is taking deliberate steps to revive and strengthen the domestic pharmaceutical industry, which has suffered years of decline.
In an interview, Professor Pate explained that the President has launched the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) to tackle these challenges.
The PVAC initiative is designed to overhaul Nigeria’s healthcare system and position the country as a key global player in health product manufacturing through significant investment and greater private sector involvement.
“For decades, Nigeria has been systematically de-industrialised. We were dependent on imports of the most basic things like generic pharmaceuticals, which we could have produced; yes, we did have some local manufacturers, but they struggled. They struggled because the policy environment was not structured.
“This administration tries to address it head on, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu initiated an effort to unlock the healthcare value chain, what we call PVAC, with policy reforms, the executive order to reduce the tariffs on raw materials and manufacturing equipment,” the minister said.
He further noted that the “Nigeria First” policy, which is designed to prioritise local content, will help promote the use of locally produced drugs and strengthen the country’s medical industry.
Professor Pate also mentioned that the government’s interventions are beginning to yield results, as private investors are now taking interest in the pharmaceutical sector and setting up manufacturing facilities.
“Recently, we commissioned a manufacturing plant in Sagamu in Ogun state, and several others have now started setting up. One here in Abuja is able to produce 600 million test kits.
“Two years ago, in all of Sub-Saharan Africa, there was no local manufacturer of rapid diagnostic kits, even to tell whether you have malaria or an infection. But now we do have local manufacturers, and that’s just the beginning. There are many more that are in the line because of this direction that this government has taken to produce locally,” he revealed.
He concluded by affirming that the Tinubu’s administration has laid a strong foundation to drive the medical industrialisation of Nigeria.
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