By Kemi Akintokun

The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Lagos chapter, has called on government at all levels to invest more in the welfare and security of Nigerians, to address brain drain.

ACPN Chairman in the state, Lawrence Ekhator, made the call at the 2023 Community Pharmacists Educational Conference, held in Lagos.

According to Ekhator, such investments will help in addressing the brain drain being experienced across different sectors of the economy.

“We are currently experiencing shortage of younger pharmacists to employ because those trained with a view to supporting our operations are living for greener pastures.

“It’s very difficult to blame them because all our appeals to the government are not yielding positive responses. This brain drain, by implication, will continue to worsen the country’s health indices,” he said.

Lawrence commended the pharmacists who were contributing to the health sector, in spite of the numerous challenges confronting them.

He urged ACPN members to continue to leverage the benefits of e-commerce, as primary healthcare service providers.

“Lots of pharmacists are putting measures in place to thrive, but the more they do so, the more government introduces different policies to make things difficult.

“The drama surrounding the naira redesign and the implication of it on the economy are massive,” he said.

Also speaking, the Registrar of Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, Mr Ibrahim Ahmed, said that the pharmacy profession had experienced massive loss of human resources in the last few years due to brain drain.

According to him, a total of 1,255 letters of good standing were issued to Nigerian pharmacists who traveled abroad between 2021 and 2022.

“Some of our young pharmacists have left the country to seek greener pastures. Over 1,000 have received letters of good standing in their various destinations outside the country,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist and former governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, was honoured at the occasion. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by ‘Wale Sadeeq