By Folasade Akpan

The Federal Government says Nigeria can become a regional supplier of pharmaceutical ingredients, deepen African pharmaceutical value chains and boost its non-oil exports if it develops the capacity to produce them competitively.

Dr Chris Isokpunwu, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, said this on Friday in Abuja at the Future of Health Conference 2026, organised by Nigeria Health Watch in collaboration with the World Bank Group, in Abuja.

The meeting has “Accelerating the Shift to Domestic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Production for Priority Essential Medicines in Nigeria,” as theme.

Isokpunwu said Nigeria had the market, population and entrepreneurial capacity to develop a competitive pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

He said that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) also offered an opportunity to expand the market for locally manufactured pharmaceutical inputs.

“With the right production capacity and internationally competitive standards, Nigeria can position itself as a regional supplier of pharmaceutical inputs, deepen African value chains and strengthen its non-oil industrial exports,” he said.

He, however, said achieving this would require deliberate identification of priority essential medicines, assessment of the technical and commercial feasibility of local production and a phased approach to attracting credible investors.

He described domestic production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) as a strategic economic imperative connecting public health, industrialisation, investment, trade and national security.

“Nigeria cannot achieve sustainable health security while remaining heavily dependent on external sources for critical pharmaceutical inputs,” he said.

According to him, local API production would strengthen medicine supply chains, reduce exposure to international disruptions and foreign exchange pressures, create skilled employment and retain more value within the Nigerian economy.

He identified predictable policies, an enabling regulatory environment, reliable power and other infrastructure, affordable financing and a sustainable market as essential conditions for attracting investment into local API manufacturing.

The permanent secretary said government also needed to support technology transfer, skills development, research and industrial partnerships, alongside effective coordination among relevant ministries and regulatory institutions.

He recalled that the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment had initiated the establishment of the Health Industries Corporation of Nigeria (HICON) to catalyse investment in APIs, basic medical hardware, pharmaceutical products, herbal medicines and diagnostic devices.

On his part, Dr Abdul Muktar, National Coordinator, Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC), said the initiative was working with the private sector to identify and prioritise APIs according to Nigeria’s public health needs.

Represented by Dr Zara Abba-Aji, he said PVAC was also collaborating with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) on excipient manufacturing.

He noted that domestic pharmaceutical production required a holistic approach involving access to capital, workforce development and affordable medicines.

Muktar said the initiative was working with a local manufacturer to facilitate access to European Investment Bank (EIB) funding and technical expertise for manufacturing and technology transfer.

He described the federal government’s 2024 Executive Order, which provided local manufacturers access to precursor ingredients, including APIs, as a temporary measure towards achieving domestic production.

Also speaking, Dr Olumide Okunola of the World Bank Group and International Finance Corporation (IFC) said pharmaceutical manufacturing presented significant health and economic opportunities for Nigeria.

He said investments in the health economy could improve health outcomes, increase productivity, create jobs and strengthen national competitiveness.

Okunola cited a modelling report which estimated that developing Nigeria’s health economy could unlock more than 40 billion dollars in value, equivalent to nearly eight per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He said Nigeria had about 200 pharmaceutical manufacturers, but their production capacity remained below 40 per cent due to challenges including regulation, inadequate power supply and financing constraints.

“Each and every single one of them needs to go to China, India to import their APIs even to make paracetamol,” he said.

Okunola said Nigeria could leverage its petrochemical infrastructure to develop domestic API production, while strategically identifying products that offered the greatest economic and health security value.

He also commended the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for developing an API policy, describing it as an important first step towards establishing a foundation for domestic production.

In her remarks, the Managing Director, Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu, said Nigeria’s dependence on imported pharmaceutical ingredients exposed its medicine supply chain to foreign exchange fluctuations and international disruptions.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic had demonstrated the vulnerability of countries that depended on external sources for essential medicines and other health supplies.

Ihekweazu said the conference was focusing on how Nigeria could strengthen its capacity to manufacture the ingredients required for essential medicines, adding that medicine security was an important component of health system resilience.

She said access to affordable medicines remained a major concern, noting that local production could help address cost pressures associated with imported ingredients.

She called for coordinated action by the ministries of health and industry, regulators, financial institutions and the private sector to create an enabling environment for sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Similarly, the Chief Executive Officer, Bloom Public Health, Prof. Chimezie Anyakora, said Nigeria had reached a stage where it should move beyond manufacturing finished pharmaceutical products to producing its active ingredients.

He said the country had developed considerable capacity in medicine manufacturing and should now advance further along the pharmaceutical value chain.

“Nigeria is among the biggest consumption and manufacturing countries in Africa. We need to be among those that will move to API manufacturing,” he said.

Anyakora said the transition would require specialised skills and urged universities to prepare professionals for the emerging area of pharmaceutical production.

He commended local manufacturers investing in API production, saying more companies needed to embrace the process.

He also called for greater public participation in ensuring medicine quality, noting that the responsibility of combating fake and substandard medicines should not rest solely with NAFDAC.

He said Nigerian pharmaceutical manufacturing had improved considerably over the past decade, adding that sustained investment in technical capacity and regulatory oversight would further strengthen confidence in locally manufactured medicines.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Future of Health Conference which began on Thursday, provides a platform for stakeholders to examine how health innovations, partnerships, research and sustainable financing can improve healthcare delivery in Nigeria.

The 2026 edition, themed “From Innovation to Impact: The Future of Health is Now”, focuses on practical solutions, scaling effective interventions and strengthening health systems to achieve measurable health outcomes.(NAN)

Edited by Abiemwense Moru