Tag: Muhammad Ali Pate

• Minister addresses continental summit

Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, has called for a new vision for global health that places Africa at the core of future governance, trade, financing and innovation.

Speaking at the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Accra, Ghana, Prof. Pate challenged existing frameworks that reduced global health to a narrow set of diseases or priorities largely shaped by external narratives:

He said global health is often described through the lens of a few priority issues, like HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, or through specific areas such as health financing or maternal and child health.

“Yet these issues are framed by externally driven perspectives, leaving African voices, especially from poorer countries, less acknowledged,” he said.

The minister explained that most health progress in lower-income countries over the past 25 years has depended on domestic financing and local leadership, with donor support playing a complementary role.

He warned that shifting geopolitics and nationalist tendencies demand a recalibration.

“We cannot build healthier populations purely on the generosity of other nations. It is time to define our path, rooted in sovereignty and aligned with local needs,” he said.

He traced the evolution of global health to two contrasting legacies.

“The first is the positive legacy of 19th-century international sanitary cooperation, which laid the foundation for today’s collaborative institutions.

“The second is the colonial legacy, rooted in tropical medicine and neo-colonial economic structures, issues that were powerfully critiqued by Ghana’s post-independence President Kwame Nkrumah,” he said.

He noted the continuity of structural inequities, despite efforts ranging from the Bandung Conference in 1955 and the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978, to global debt initiatives and public health commissions.

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He said donor-driven priorities routinely undermine national agency and compromise the independence of institutions like the WHO.

“Too often, macroeconomic metrics prioritise short-term ‘value for money’ over the critical public health investments our people need, such as sanitation, clean water, waste management and nutrition,” he said.

He warned of fragmentation and dwindling resources despite these structural flaws and the emergence of over 70 global health partnerships like the Global Fund, Gavi and CEPI.

To reclaim leadership in global health,” he said, “we must act decisively through a seven-point strategic framework.

Prof. Pate said the region must forge a strategic South-South alliance, uniting Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean to form a new geopolitical axis that, while mindful of global power dynamics, remains committed to equity-driven governance.

He said it is also essential to revise trade terms restricting manufacturing capacity and limiting access to essential medicines.

He added that the continent must champion true country ownership and accountability.

“We must push for a more independent and effective WHO by restructuring its funding model to emphasise predictable, unearmarked contributions that allow for impartial and equitable leadership.

“We need to prioritise domestic financing models. This includes exploring innovative instruments such as pooled regional health funds, diaspora bonds, and blended finance approaches that reduce overreliance on foreign aid,” he said.

He said it is important to industrialise the health trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

“This means engaging trade and finance ministries to build infrastructure for continental markets, harmonise professional standards, and support the health value chain, from diagnostics and test kits to digital health platforms.

“Finally, we need to strengthen intellectual property protections while encouraging local innovation.”

Prof. Pate’s vision aligns with broader continental priorities focused on health resilience, economic sovereignty, and inclusive growth, a strategic roadmap emerging from recent high-level African summits.

The federal government has unveiled a groundbreaking group purchasing platform named Medipool, aimed at slashing the cost of essential medicines and healthcare products to further energise local pharmaceutical manufacturing across the country.

The initiative, according to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, is expected to cut drug prices and boost local pharma manufacturing.

The initiative is structured as a public-private partnership and leverages the Federal government’s considerable purchasing power to negotiate favourable prices directly from local manufacturers.

According to the Minister, the approach allows the government to act as a monopsony buyer that will buy at scale to help reduce drug prices, especially for the poor and vulnerable populations.

Pate, who disclosed this in a broadcast on Sunday, described the new scheme as a historic intervention designed to address the rising cost of medicines and consumables that have burdened millions of Nigerian households.

“Medipool is an innovative group purchasing organisation created to shape our domestic market by organising and activating real demand, negotiating competitive pricing, ensuring quality, and enabling efficient supply chain management.

“It will also offer predictable offtake for local manufacturers of essential medicines and healthcare products”, he said.

According to him, the Medipool platform will initially serve Nigerians through the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), which already supports over 37 million citizens accessing services in primary healthcare centres across the country.

“Eventually, Medipool will expand to include Federal tertiary hospitals and the private sector,” he explained.

He said the move aligns with broader reforms under the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC), which seeks to increase Nigeria’s local production of pharmaceutical products to 70 percent of domestic consumption while also boosting employment in the sector to at least 50,000 full-time jobs from the current estimate of 20,000.

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“These are not theoretical steps or abstract policies. These are concrete actions we are currently implementing,” he noted.

Highlighting the critical role played by President Bola Tinubu in creating an enabling environment for local manufacturing, Pate cited the June 2024 Executive Order, which provided tariff waivers on raw materials for pharmaceutical production and other essential health products.

“That giant step encouraged international financiers to look towards Nigeria. The European Investment Bank has identified significant opportunities in local medical supplies manufacturing.

“Similarly, AfriExim Bank has earmarked at least $1 billion to facilitate supply-side growth in pharmaceuticals, biologics, and essential medical devices in Nigeria,” the Minister emphasised.

However, he underscored the importance of not just increasing supply but also stimulating domestic demand to ensure a well-balanced, sustainable ecosystem for health product manufacturing.

“If we get this right and regulate it appropriately, Nigeria will not only build a healthier healthcare market but also play a leading role in shaping healthcare outcomes across the African continent,” he stressed.

Among the tangible results of the new strategy is the recently inaugurated Codex Bio Ltd Rapid Diagnostic Test Kit Production Complex in Ogun State, he explained, adding that the plant is expected to produce over 147 million test kits annually for diseases such as HIV, malaria, and hepatitis.

Pate said Codex Bio had become the first African manufacturing partner under the World Health Organisation’s Health Technology Access Pool (HTAP), in partnership with SD Biosensor of South Korea and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).

“This is a transformative leap for Nigeria, it positions Codex Bio at the forefront of rapid diagnostic test production in Africa and strengthens global health security,” added.

The Minister also cited the newly commissioned Beta-lactam facility in Lagos, developed by Jawa Investments Ltd, as another major milestone, noting that the facility will produce essential antibiotics like amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, bringing Nigeria closer to self-sufficiency and potentially lowering costs for consumers.

“These developments are being driven by Nigeria’s resilient private sector,” he said, listing other upcoming ventures such as the Emsos Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) plant, Fitsins Pharmaceuticals expansion, Naseni Fromant Diagnostics, and Ash Biomedical.

“These efforts reflect the entrepreneurial spirit Nigerians are known for. They are responding to policy reforms that the federal government has undertaken,” Pate added.

By reiterating the administration’s commitment to transforming the health sector into a catalyst for national development, the Minister stressed, “All of this is possible because we elected a President who understands business and prioritizes health as a core pillar for the development of our nation”..

Pate also praised his cabinet colleagues for their support, including Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, and Ministers Jumoke Oduwole and Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, for their collaboration under President Tinubu’s vision.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, says Nigeria has not been able to eliminate malaria 70 years since it began implementing programmes to eliminate the disease, due to “insufficient focus and commitment.”

He said 24 years ago after the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria in Abuja (popularly known as Abuja Declaration on Roll Back Malaria) Nigeria still bears 30 percent of the global burden, with an estimated annual 68 million cases and over 194,000 deaths from the disease.

The minister said this in his opening remarks at the Roundtable Discussion on Rethinking Malaria Elimination in Nigeria, held in Abuja.

The minister said although the Roll Back Malaria Initiative achieved remarkable progress such as increased funding for malaria control efforts in Africa, both from domestic sources and international donors, gaps still exist.

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Such gaps, according to the minister were in the areas of raising enough awareness on the severity of malaria, mobilizing enough financial and technical resources to support malaria control efforts in Nigeria and African, invested in strengthening our health systems towards improving malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment targeting infrastructure, training healthcare workers, and improving access to essential malaria interventions, among other.

The minister said that for Nigeria and Africa to eliminate malaria all critical stakeholders must “utilize newer evidence-based tools, quality data systems, strengthen collaborations, develop smarter financing models, and new procurement modalities to suit our realities in Nigeria as well as the African continent.

He said: “We must reimagine the routine approaches that have so far defined our interventions over the recent years.

“Nigeria, African countries and the global malaria community must also reinvent approaches to address the constraints that prevent efficient delivery of existing effective key malaria control strategies and forthcoming innovations and tools. Tools for the control of the disease have evolved both in quantity and quality over the years.”

The minister said despite the availability of new tools, commitment by countries towards the elimination of the disease could not be sustained as budgets for healthcare across countries on the continent dwindled over time, and only a few countries could achieve the Abuja targets.

He said several novel strategies and interventions have been deployed and scaled up in Nigeria towards the elimination of malaria.

Some of these strategies, according to him, include the introduction of artemisinin-based combination treatments as treatment, the Affordable Medicine Facility for Malaria (AMFm) to make antimalarial medicines available and affordable, and training of community-oriented resource persons on recognizing and treating malaria.

He said: “Over 140 million have also been distributed since 2010 through campaigns and routine distribution to households.

“One of the latest interventions is the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), which protects children below the age of five years from malaria attacks, and this has been scaled up from the initial 9 states in the Sahelian region at onset to cover 23 states across areas with seasonal rainfall in the country.”

He said the launch of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative [NHSRII] by President Bola Tinubu in December 2023 was part of the Federal Government’s efforts to improve quality health delivery for all Nigerians.