Nigeria Targets 70% Local Production of Essential Health Products by 2030 – Minister
By Ojoma Akor
The Nigerian government is working towards producing at least 70 percent of its essential healthcare products locally by 2030.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, disclosed this in Lagos while speaking at the 8th Nigeria Pharma Manufacturers Expo (NPME).
The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN) organized it.
The minister said Nigeria’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with changes in the global health financing landscape, had reinforced the need for the country and the continent to develop greater capacity to produce essential medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and other health technologies.
While saying the question confronting Nigeria and Africa was no longer simply whether medicines could be accessed, he said it is now whether the continent could “produce, at scale and competitively, the medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and health technologies that Nigerians and Africans need.”
The minister said the Federal Government of Nigeria is committed to answering the question in the affirmative through reforms designed to strengthen domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing and position Nigeria as a regional manufacturing hub.
Salako highlighted that genuine localization should not be limited to importing active pharmaceutical ingredients, packaging materials and technologies before assembling finished products locally.
He said Nigeria must progressively develop capacity across the pharmaceutical value chain, including research and development, local sourcing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients and other raw materials, commercial formulation and manufacturing, quality assurance, packaging and distribution.
The minister also called for increased investment in biologics, vaccines and other critical health technologies, describing these areas as important to achieving sustainable medicine security.
He said Africa must also overcome the fragmentation created by national borders by adopting a regional approach to pharmaceutical manufacturing.
According to him, manufacturers should look beyond individual national markets and leverage regional integration frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to access a market of more than 1.5 billion people.
“This is the economic logic of regional manufacturing, which is not merely manufacturing for Africa, but making Africa a competitive manufacturing base for the world,” he said.
Salako said Nigeria currently has more than 200 local pharmaceutical and life-science companies, compared with fewer than 180 in 2021.
He also cited data from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), which, he said, showed that finished pharmaceutical imports declined from 4.03 billion units to 1.13 billion units by 2025.
He described the trend as evidence of progress towards greater domestic production of healthcare products.
The minister said the Federal Government has introduced several initiatives to accelerate this process, including the Presidential Initiative to Unlock Healthcare Value Chains (PVAC) and the Presidential Executive Order for Pharmaceutical and Allied Sectors.
According to Salako, PVAC has secured $2 billion in commitments at single-digit interest rates, with tenors of between 20 and 25 years, while about 50 Nigerian health companies are currently in advanced funding discussions under the facility.
He said the initiative has set a target of having at least 70 percent of essential healthcare products manufactured locally by 2030, with particular focus on APIs, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and bed nets, given Nigeria’s malaria burden.
The Presidential Executive Order, he added, was designed to complement PVAC by incentivizing local manufacturing of medicines and other health commodities, including syringes and RDT kits.
He said two Nigerian products had attained WHO prequalification, describing the achievement as the first of its kind in West and Central Africa.
He further said efforts were underway to scale up local manufacturing of diagnostics for HIV, hepatitis and syphilis, with partnerships involving Codix, Abbott and Afrimedical. At the same time, local production of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) was also being scaled up to address acute malnutrition among children.
On vaccines and other health technologies, Salako said the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) was working with the European Union and other partners on a roadmap to strengthen medicine security.
He said the Manufacturing and Access to Vaccines, Medicines and Health Technologies (MAV+) project, valued at €18 million, was being implemented to strengthen research, development and local manufacturing capacity for vaccines, biologics, diagnostics and medical devices.
Salako also highlighted the NIPRD API Capacity Building and Concept Production Center, which he described as West Africa’s first dedicated API training and development hub.
According to him, the center was supported by an African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) grant and is now operational.
He said the initiative had helped catalyze the development of Sub-Saharan Africa’s first commercial API production plant in Ogun State.
The minister said sustainable growth of Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry would require stronger investment in contextual research and development.
He urged pharmaceutical companies to collaborate with government to explore Nigeria’s phytomedicinal resources, noting that Africa is home to about 25 percent of the world’s plant genetic resources.
“Plants, as we know, directly contributed to the development of important drugs including antimalarial drugs, opioid analgesics and cancer chemotherapy,” he said.
Salako called on pharmaceutical manufacturers to work with government and research institutions to develop phytomedicine resources for potential use in the country’s healthcare system.
