Adekunle Yusuf
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has commended the recent decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide N100 billion loan package to the health sector with focus on the local manufacturing sector.
In a statement, PSN President, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, said the intervention fund is long-awaited.
“For many years, we have drawn attention to the dangers of total dependence on importation for our local drug needs. We have complained that this creates a real national security exposure, yet not much attention was paid to us. We had argued that the pharmaceuticals should get part of the attention paid to agriculture. To all intents and purposes, medicines come next to food and to be truthful, for some of our people, medicines have become food. Again, some people thought we were talking of protecting the pharmaceutical industry from a commercial point of view,” he said.
The PSN boss said global supply chains have been disrupted, including dominant drug supply channels from China and India. In fact, many countries have or are planning to ban export of drugs and medical supplies from their countries. “Clearly, we have no choice but to produce these items locally. As a result, the Committee has identified a few key local pharmaceutical companies who shall be granted naira and foreign exchange funding facilities to support procurement of raw materials and equipment required to exponentially increase local drug production in Nigeria. These loans would be granted at single-digit interest rate and for long tenures, including granting necessary moratorium.”
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The PSN applauds the CBN and the Bankers Committee for this bold action, which it described as a major impetus to realising the national health policy objective of producing a minimum of 70 per cent of essential drug needs locally, as companies access the special intervention funds and increase their capacities.
“We pray that the implementation will be quick, swift and wholesome, devoid of the usual lending bureaucracies of ‘come today and come tomorrow.’ In the interim, may we request the government to issue directives to the Custom Services to grant expedited clearance of healthcare and pharmaceutical in our ports, as many shipments are waiting at the ports, to mitigate shortage of essential drugs. Additionally, may we request that all duties and levies on essential pharmaceuticals and healthcare equipment be suspended for the next three months to assure sustainable supply and pricing stability to the Nigerians in dire need at this period of global health emergency,” Ohuabunwa said.
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