Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a remarkable expansion, with the country’s food and drug regulatory authority pointing to a sixfold increase in local manufacturers as evidence that intentional policy and a rigorous regulatory environment are delivering tangible results for the sector.
The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Professor Christianah Mojisola Adeyeye, made the disclosure at the commissioning of a new ultra-modern facility belonging to SAM Pharmaceuticals Limited in Sango-Ota, Ogun State, where she credited the agency’s regulatory capacity as a central driver of the growth being witnessed.
Adeyeye described what is unfolding in the sector as the product of deliberate government policy combined with a regulatory system that has refused to compromise on standards. She noted that the effectiveness of the agency’s five plus five policy and the ceiling list framework had created the conditions for local manufacturers to expand operations and fully utilise their production capacities.
She also disclosed that NAFDAC has been successfully re-benchmarked for World Health Organization Maturity Level 3 status, making Nigeria the first national regulatory authority in Sub-Saharan Africa to clear the re-benchmarking exercise. She said the agency’s next target is attaining WHO Maturity Level 4 status and ultimately the World Listed Authority designation, a classification that would allow Nigerian manufactured products to be marketed freely in any part of the world.
On the agency’s approach to contract manufacturing, Adeyeye said a firm stance on local production had produced equally impressive results.
“We insisted that you must migrate to local manufacturing or, if you do not have the capacity, you should partner with a local manufacturer. We now have a sixfold increase in local manufacturers. No investor would like to invest where the regulatory system is weak,” she said.
The Consul General of India to Nigeria, Mr. Kannan Chockalingam, also addressed the gathering and noted that pharmaceutical manufacturers themselves have attributed the sector’s growth to the strength of Nigeria’s regulatory system and the government’s commitment to improving the ease of doing business. He pledged India’s support for Nigeria not only through the supply of finished pharmaceutical products but also in building local capabilities and transferring technology to strengthen the country’s manufacturing base.
Dr. Fidelis Ayebae, Chairman of FIDSON Healthcare Plc, added his voice to the commendations, saying the growth on display would not have been possible without NAFDAC’s policy interventions.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Isiaka Salako, spoke to the broader transformation taking place in the national pharmaceutical industry, describing the current administration’s push to unlock the healthcare value chain as motivated not only by economic considerations but by the imperative of achieving medicine sovereignty for Nigeria.
He acknowledged that a combination of factors including suboptimal prioritisation and insufficient political will had previously prevented the country from capturing the full benefits of its pharmaceutical and related value chains. He said the present administration has now properly positioned the sector to serve Nigeria’s large and growing population while simultaneously stimulating growth in a range of auxiliary industries.
Salako also noted that 87 local manufacturing companies are directly benefiting from incentives flowing from the presidential order on zero tariff on pharmaceutical machinery, active pharmaceutical ingredients and related items, with the benefits spread across approximately 1,000 harmonised system codes.
