Leading pharmaceutical experts and industry stakeholders have called for urgent executive reforms and stronger policy implementation to end Nigeria’s heavy dependence on imported medicines, warning that the country risks deepening healthcare insecurity and industrial stagnation if decisive action is not taken.
The call was made at the 29th Annual National Conference of the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP), where United States-based pharmaceutical scientist and quality strategist, Nonye Onyewuenyi, alongside former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Sam I. Ohuabunwa, unveiled strategies aimed at reducing Nigeria’s over 70 per cent dependence on imported drugs.
The experts expressed concern over worsening economic pressures facing local pharmaceutical manufacturers, including foreign exchange volatility, rising production costs, and increasing prices of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), all of which continue to weaken domestic manufacturing capacity.
Speaking during her keynote address, Dr. Onyewuenyi said Nigeria already possesses the natural resources, human capacity, and industrial potential required to achieve medicine self-sufficiency but lacks deliberate policy execution and strong implementation frameworks.
“We have the raw materials and the ambition, but what we lack is a deliberate policy,” she stated. “It is unacceptable for a nation of over 200 million people with more than 200 registered pharmaceutical firms to still import over 70 percent of its drugs.”
She urged the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu to move beyond policy pronouncements and aggressively fund the implementation of the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) and the Renewed Hope Agenda.
According to her, healthcare sovereignty cannot be achieved through rhetoric alone.
“Nigeria cannot continue to rely on foreign nations for medicines, vaccines, and essential medical products if it truly seeks sovereignty in healthcare delivery,” she added.
Her position received strong backing from speakers at the conference, who stressed the need for political commitment, strategic investment, and measurable accountability in the pharmaceutical sector.
At the executive management session, Ohuabunwa charged pharmaceutical industry leaders to abandon outdated bureaucratic culture and adopt disciplined, data-driven operational leadership capable of sustaining businesses in volatile economic conditions.
“Performance management is the heartbeat of corporate sustainability,” Ohuabunwa declared. “It is not an HR yearly form; it is a daily commitment to ensuring our patients win and our business grows.”
The Managing Consultant of Starteam Consult and founding Chief Executive Officer of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc advocated continuous weekly performance reviews, structured coaching systems, and real-time operational monitoring to bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
“We must stop seeing performance management as a seasonal event,” he said. “It is the bridge between our strategic vision and the safe, quality medicines our patients deserve.”
Drawing from decades of industry experience, Ohuabunwa emphasized the importance of cultivating high-performing professionals while institutionalising merit-based systems rooted in competence and professionalism.
He also urged the leadership of NAIP, led by National Chairman Bankole Ezebuiro, to promote systems based on knowledge and competence rather than patronage.
On the technical side, Dr. Onyewuenyi expressed concern that many Nigerian pharmaceutical firms remain unable to meet international manufacturing standards because of weak infrastructure, inadequate research investment, and poor scientific innovation systems.
Speaking during an interview with media, she lamented that local firms remain technically disadvantaged due to limited laboratory facilities and decades of underinvestment in research and development.
ceoafrica.com
“For a country blessed with abundant natural and human resources, it is a sheer waste to keep importing drugs that Nigeria could produce in abundance if only more effort was put into innovation and research,” she said.
As Chief Executive and Chief Executive Scientist Officer of �, Onyewuenyi delivered technical masterclasses on structural pre-formulation science and Quality by Design (QbD), aimed at equipping local manufacturers with globally compliant production methodologies.
nolixanalytics.com
She explained that Quality by Design allows manufacturers to build quality directly into pharmaceutical products using evidence-based production systems that prioritise patient safety from the earliest formulation stages.
“If drugs are poorly manufactured without understanding the precise interaction and characterization of APIs, the product will ultimately cause harm to patients,” she cautioned.
The pharmaceutical scientist also called for industry-wide assessments covering human capital, current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) structures, and industrial infrastructure to identify existing gaps hindering growth.
Drawing lessons from countries such as India and the United States, she advocated aggressive government-backed incentives for local API production, including tax incentives, pharmaceutical industrial parks, and long-term investment frameworks.
She further stressed the need for stronger collaboration among manufacturers, universities, and agencies such as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development to strengthen scientific integrity and industrial research systems.
Dr. Onyewuenyi also proposed integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI), green chemistry, indigenous herbal medicine research, and computational pharmaceutical analysis into Nigeria’s industrial roadmap to position the country as a major pharmaceutical hub in Africa.
Both Onyewuenyi and Ohuabunwa strongly emphasised the need for technical integrity and zero tolerance for data falsification in pharmaceutical manufacturing because of its direct impact on human lives.
“In pharma, we deal with lives,” Ohuabunwa warned. “You cannot ‘PIP’ your way out of falsified records or data integrity breaches.”
Reacting to the presentations, Ezebuiro commended the experts for presenting what he described as practical and transformative ideas capable of repositioning Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry for sustainable growth.
As the conference ended, both experts maintained that Nigeria’s pharmaceutical transformation would only succeed through disciplined execution, strategic investment, and strong political will.
“The Nigerian pharmaceutical industry inherently possesses the structural and intellectual capacity to become an absolute giant in the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of pharmaceutical products across the African continent,” Dr. Onyewuenyi said. “If we begin now to implement the framework established during this conference, the sky will be just the beginning.”
