Pharmacists Challenge NAFDAC’s 70% Drug Import Reduction Claim

Pharmacists and healthcare providers have challenged the claim by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) that Nigeria’s dependence on imported medicines has fallen significantly, arguing that a reduction in drug imports does not necessarily mean the country now produces 70 per cent of its pharmaceutical needs locally.

According to a report by Newstellers, the experts said Nigeria’s continued reliance on imported active pharmaceutical ingredients, packaging materials and finished medicines from countries such as India and China raised questions about the extent of the country’s pharmaceutical self-sufficiency, despite recent government policies aimed at strengthening local manufacturing.

The reaction followed a disclosure by the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, on Sunday that drug imports in products covered by the agency’s local manufacturing initiatives had declined by 70 per cent.

Adeyeye made the disclosure at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Invest in Nigeria Conference and Expo 4.0, where she said the agency’s “5 Plus 5” policy and Ceiling List initiative had contributed to an increase in the number of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Nigeria from 174 to 190.

The NAFDAC boss said the ratio of imported to locally manufactured pharmaceutical products had also changed from 70:30 in 2019 to 50:50 in 2025, attributing the development partly to policies such as the Federal Government’s Executive Order granting zero tariffs, excise duties and Value-Added Tax on imported machinery, equipment and raw materials for local healthcare manufacturing.

But speaking exclusively to Newstellers.ng on Monday, the Lagos State Chapter Chairman of the Health Care Providers Association, Abiola Paul-Ozieh, said the figures needed to be properly explained to establish whether the reduction referred to the overall volume of medicines imported into Nigeria or only specific products covered by NAFDAC’s restrictions.

Paul-Ozieh, who is also the Superintendent Pharmacist of Hi Rock Pharmacy, said the country’s continued reliance on imported medicines and pharmaceutical inputs made it difficult to interpret the 70 per cent reduction as evidence that Nigeria had achieved substantial pharmaceutical self-reliance.

She stated, “To say drug importation has reduced, whether they mean it has reduced to 70 per cent or reduced by 70 per cent, if you say it has reduced by 70 per cent, it must be a claim that is made over the year that from last year or from the beginning of this new administration, drug importation has drastically reduced by 70 per cent.

“Then we need to know. But that does not translate to the fact that we are now making 70 per cent of our needs in Nigeria. I don’t think it translates to that.”

Paul-Ozieh questioned how the reported reduction was calculated, stressing that the distinction between a decline in imports and an increase in domestic production was critical to understanding the actual state of Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry.

She said while NAFDAC’s figures could indicate progress in selected areas, they should not be interpreted as meaning that most medicines consumed in Nigeria were now manufactured domestically.

According to her, the country still relies heavily on imports for antibiotics, antimalarial medicines and other pharmaceutical products, with many of the medicines and inputs supplied to wholesalers and distributors originating from India, China and other countries.

“Because I know antibiotics as they are today, and even most of the anti-malaria are still imported majorly from India. So I don’t know where that record is,” she said.

The pharmacist said the government needed to disclose the baseline and timeframe used to arrive at the 70 per cent reduction, as well as the actual proportion of Nigeria’s total medicine requirements that was being met by local manufacturers.

She said, “If all our drug needs are 100 per cent, are we seeing 30 per cent of the drug needs being imported and 70 per cent being made locally? That is what we need to know.”

Paul-Ozieh added that the figures would be more meaningful if they clearly distinguished between the proportion of finished medicines produced locally and the proportion of pharmaceutical raw materials and other inputs sourced domestically.

She identified active pharmaceutical ingredients and packaging materials as two of the major obstacles confronting local drug manufacturers, noting that both are still largely imported.

She argued that unless Nigeria developed the capacity to produce pharmaceutical ingredients locally, a reduction in the importation of finished medicines would not automatically translate into true self-sufficiency.

“It is active pharmaceutical ingredients and packaging materials. All these things are majorly imported. If something can be done such that we have the APIs in Nigeria, then drug importation will drastically reduce,” she said.

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Paul-Ozieh noted that only a limited number of companies appeared to have made significant progress towards backward integration, whereby manufacturers produce some of the critical pharmaceutical inputs required for their operations.

She cited Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited as an example of a company that had pursued backward integration by moving towards the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, but said the capital-intensive nature of such investments had made it difficult for other manufacturers to follow the same path.

She said some companies that had previously started similar projects had struggled to sustain them because of the huge financial requirements involved.

The pharmacist therefore urged the Federal Government to move beyond policy declarations and ensure that pharmaceutical manufacturers actually benefited from incentives announced to encourage domestic production.

“I know that on paper and based on declarations, they are improving the business climate, but are those manufacturing companies getting those concessions that governments claim they have done? Are they really getting them? I’m yet to see it in the landscape,” she said.

Paul-Ozieh added that the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed the danger of excessive dependence on foreign countries for essential medicines and medical supplies.

She argued that Nigeria should treat pharmaceutical production as a matter of national resilience and security rather than solely as a commercial activity.

“We should work towards self-reliance. I think COVID taught us, but I’m not sure we really worked as expected,” she said.

According to her, disruptions in international supply chains can quickly affect countries that depend heavily on foreign sources for essential medicines, making domestic pharmaceutical capacity important not only for economic development but also for public health security.

She urged the government to sustain policies capable of encouraging manufacturers to establish production facilities, develop local sources of raw materials and invest in research and development.

Also speaking exclusively to Newstellers on Monday, a pharmacist and Superintendent Pharmacist and Managing Director of Engraced Pharmacy, Jonah Okotie, said he had not seen a significant increase in the local manufacture of medicines across the pharmaceutical market.

Okotie said although Nigeria had some domestic manufacturing capacity, it remained concentrated in relatively limited categories, while several medicines continued to disappear from the shelves because they were either no longer being produced locally or had become unavailable for other reasons.

“There is no significant increase in the local manufacture of medications because a lot of medications, besides the average basic ones like Vitamin C that we have local capacity for, there are some medications that, as we are speaking, are off the shelves,” he said.

He attributed part of the problem to the difficult economic environment, as well as the increasing requirements for establishing and maintaining pharmaceutical production facilities that meet regulatory standards.

According to him, the cost of setting up compliant manufacturing facilities remains a major barrier to new entrants and existing manufacturers seeking to expand their operations.

Okotie said Nigeria needed a stronger approach to capacity building if it wanted to significantly increase domestic pharmaceutical production.

He recalled that during the tenure of the late former NAFDAC Director-General, Prof Dora Akunyili, the agency provided practical support to some local manufacturers by sending its officials to facilities that were yet to meet regulatory standards and guiding them towards compliance.

“I remember, like you said, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We’ve been past that wheel before. During the days of Dora Akunyili as NAFDAC chairman, something she did very well was that for some of the people who were manufacturing locally, though they were not registered facilities, she sent her staff into some of those facilities to hold them by the hand and guide them without necessarily demanding that they pay this or pay that,” he said.

He said such an approach enabled some manufacturers to improve their facilities and meet the standards required for pharmaceutical production, adding that several beneficiaries of the initiative remained in the industry.

Okotie therefore called for a sustained capacity-building programme under which regulators would work with local manufacturers to identify deficiencies, provide technical guidance and give them a realistic pathway towards compliance.

He said, “By nature of the state of the country in terms of drug commodities, we need to do that and sustain it for a long period of time.”

The pharmacist also faulted what he described as the treatment of pharmaceutical production purely as a business activity, arguing that access to medicines should be regarded as a national security concern.

He said regulatory charges and the cost of obtaining approvals for pharmaceutical products and manufacturing facilities could discourage investment in an industry that already operates under significant economic pressure.

“If we understand health for what it is, it’s also a security. It’s a national security issue. So NAFDAC being an income-generating agency, in my opinion, is something we are not getting right,” Okotie said.

He argued that manufacturers were faced with significant costs at virtually every stage, including product registration and facility accreditation, at a time when drug manufacturing did not necessarily offer the same profit margins as several other businesses.

According to him, the situation creates a contradiction in which the government wants local pharmaceutical production to expand but the cost of entering and operating within the regulated industry can discourage potential investors.

“We can’t be shooting ourselves in the foot. The entry point is so high now that even the professionals and those who are joining may not really be able to enter at the level because you’ll be needing so much to be able to do that,” he said.

Okotie said Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry had existed for decades and should, by now, have developed into a major manufacturing hub in Africa.

He argued that countries such as India and China did not wait until their manufacturing industries had achieved the highest international standards before developing domestic capacity.

“The China, the India, the Asian countries who today have capacity, they didn’t wait to have standards that were in line with WHO or whatever. They knew they needed jobs for their people and, within the limits of what their people could do, they accredited them and did all that they needed to do,” he said.

He urged Nigerian regulators and policymakers to develop a system that combines strong quality control with practical support for manufacturers, rather than imposing requirements that could make local production financially unsustainable.

Okotie said Nigeria’s dependence on foreign pharmaceutical markets would persist unless the government addressed the structural challenges confronting local manufacturers, particularly access to capital, infrastructure, raw materials and regulatory compliance.

NAFDAC has, however, maintained that its local manufacturing policies are producing measurable results.

The agency, on Sunday, said its “5 Plus 5” policy, introduced in 2019, was designed to gradually phase out the importation of selected medicines that Nigerian manufacturers had the capacity to produce.

Under the policy, selected products are restricted from importation and are expected to be manufactured locally, either by companies establishing their own facilities or through contract manufacturing arrangements with qualified Nigerian manufacturers.

The Ceiling List, another NAFDAC initiative, has also expanded the number of products restricted from importation from nine in 2020 to 36.

Adeyeye said that as of June 2026, NAFDAC had reviewed and approved the layouts of 176 pharmaceutical companies, comprising 70 existing companies and 106 new companies.

She said the number of companies involved in contract manufacturing had also risen from 10 in 2019 to 87 in 2026, while existing facilities were undergoing retrofitting and upgrades to meet current Good Manufacturing Practice standards.

The agency disclosed that 37 existing manufacturers were undergoing construction and upgrading, while 28 others had completed construction and commenced operations. It also said 16 new pharmaceutical manufacturers and six new medical device and in-vitro diagnostic manufacturers had emerged.

Adeyeye said 28 companies had been newly developed or retrofitted, while 16 new facilities had emerged, bringing the total to 44 and representing a 25 per cent increase in local manufacturing.

“The rise in contract manufacturing reflects a strategic move toward sustainable and scalable local operations,” she said.

While acknowledging the importance of NAFDAC’s initiatives, the pharmacists said the latest figures should be subjected to a broader assessment that captures the actual structure of Nigeria’s medicine supply chain.

They argued that measuring the success of local manufacturing should go beyond the number of registered companies, new facilities, contract manufacturing arrangements or restrictions placed on imported products.

For them, the more important questions are how much of Nigeria’s total medicine consumption is produced locally, how much of the raw materials used by domestic manufacturers is sourced within the country, and whether locally produced medicines are consistently available to patients.

The pharmacists also said the government should make public the methodology, baseline and product categories used in calculating the reported 70 per cent reduction in imports, to prevent the figure from being misunderstood as meaning that Nigeria had become 70 per cent self-sufficient in medicine production.

They maintained that genuine pharmaceutical self-reliance would require a complete domestic ecosystem, from active pharmaceutical ingredients and packaging materials to finished medicines, skilled manpower, technology, financing and sustainable manufacturing infrastructure.

The pharmacists’ position therefore places the focus on whether Nigeria’s emerging local manufacturing gains are translating into genuine reductions in foreign dependence, rather than simply whether more pharmaceutical facilities are being registered or whether imports of selected products have declined.