The federal government has been asked to prioritize local medication production by Prof. Martins Emeje, Director-General of the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA).
During his World Health Day speech, Emeje stated that President Bola Tinubu ought to address decreasing the country’s importation of foreign medications, given that the nation possesses the necessary equipment and human resources to manufacture drugs domestically.
He pointed out that Nigeria needs a new strategy because the one the nation has been employing since colonial times has kept it there.
He described Nigeria’s reliance on pharmaceutical imports and claimed that the country cannot modify its current course of action.
“We are not looking inward, which is the reason behind the lack of investment in our own local development, local medication manufacture, and local research and development and manufacturing. Both local medicine manufacture and research & development must be encouraged.
Prof. Emeje argued that the nation needs to start prioritizing the development of indigenous medications.
He stated that the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency is striving to open herbal medicine centers in each of the nation’s 774 local governments and that, in order to provide thorough documentation, the agency has already started building a database listing all traditional medicine practitioners in the nation along with the kinds of goods and services they provide.
“We have already begun working with the municipal authorities of Alimosho. He said, “We are starting a N500 billion project with the Alimosho local government, and we plan to use that as a pilot and escalate it to the rest of the country.”
