Nigeria raises $1bn to boost local manufacturing of drugs

An initiative by the Bola Tinubu-led administration has successfully raised over $1 billion to boost the local production of drugs in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the national coordinator of the Presidential “Unlocking Healthcare Value-Chain” Initiative, Dr. Abdu Mukhtar.

Mukhtar disclosed this during the Medic West Africa Conference held on Wednesday in Lagos.

The coordinator lamented that currently 70 per cent of drugs in the country are imported, while 30 per cent are produced locally.

“We import about 32 per cent of pharmaceuticals from India; 31 from the Netherlands and 10 per cent from China. On medical devices, Nigeria imports 99 per cent of its medical devices used in the country.

“For instance, we import about 36 per cent of medical devices from China; Germany (10 per cent), France (nine percent) and India (eight per cent). On vaccines, Nigeria is a GAVI country, hence we don’t manufacture vaccines,” he explained.

Mukhtar also gave possible reasons why this has been so, as he stated that supply, demand and the enabling environment were some of the challenges undermining the industrial development of the life sciences sector in the country.

He added that the initiative, which has already raised $1bn from a continental bank, seeks to unlock billions of dollars of new investment into the nation’s healthcare delivery system.

In his words: “We are prioritizing local production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for synthetic small molecule drugs and semi-synthetic small molecule drugs. We are also prioritizing Malaria treatment, among others.

“We have already gotten $1 billion from Afrexim Bank, to boost local drug production in Nigeria. We are talking with the Bank of Industry, Africa Development Bank and European Investment bank as well.

“On local production of APIs, manufacturers are spending huge amounts of foreign exchange to purchase APIs used to formulate drugs. Producing APIs will save the country forex and also boost local production of drugs. We have a very clear plan on how we can start the process,” he added.

Other dignitaries present at the event include, the commissioner for Health, Lagos state, Prof. Akin Abayomi; Special Adviser to the President on Health, Salma Anas-Ibrahim, among others.