The Senate Committee on Science and Technology has promised to support and reposition the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) in tune with modern realities so as to help it to make the agency more effective in order to achieve its mandate. That was the promise made by Senator Uche Ekwunife when she led committee members on a visit to the headquarters of NNMDA in Lagos.
After commending the management of NNMDA for achievements and breakthroughs recorded in research and physical development, the visiting senators said are particularly concerned about fund generation capacity of the agency, which the committee said needs to be revamped. While admitting that budgetary allocations to the agency over the years were too meagre to help it perform optimally, the committee members said NNMDA too has not fully exploited its fund generation potential, going by the law establishing agency. Senator Ekwunife stressed that the law establishing NNMDA envisaged that the agency will be entitled to one per cent of duties collected on all imported therapeutics and devices. “When an Act of Parliament establishes an agency, that Act will not say everything. It depends on the head of the agency to ensure that he puts up a team to help to analyse the Act establishing the agency one by and one and come up with the ways and manners of generating revenues for the agency. I don’t knowwhy you have this kind of constitutional backing and someone is sitting on it. The Act says you are entitled to one per cent of revenue collected by FIRS or CBN on every herbal therapy, tea or spices, etc.
“We are ready to assist you achieve your constitutional obligations because it is the right thing to do. Every Act of Parliament is meant to be obeyed; not pick and choose. If your agency is not important to the Nigerian economy, the parliament will not give you this provision.”
Responding, Dr Sam Etatuvie thanked the senators for always supporting the agency. All over the world, millions of people rely on natural medicines because of affordability, availability, insufficiency of orthodox medicine, and religious belief, among others, he said.