Nigeria’s overwhelming dependence on imported medicines has again come under intense scrutiny, as leading pharmaceutical experts and industry stakeholders called for an urgent national reset to safeguard the country’s healthcare sovereignty and industrial future.
Speaking at the 29th Annual National Conference of the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP), United States-based pharmaceutical scientist and quality strategist, Dr. Nonye Onyewuenyi, alongside former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi Sam I. Ohuabunwa, advanced a far-reaching blueprint aimed at dismantling Nigeria’s dangerous dependence on imported drugs, which currently accounts for over 70 percent of medicines consumed in the country.
The experts warned that unless deliberate action is taken immediately, Nigeria risks worsening medicine insecurity, rising healthcare vulnerability, and industrial stagnation.
Their position comes amid mounting economic pressures confronting local pharmaceutical manufacturers, including severe foreign exchange volatility, escalating production costs, and the increasing price of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), all of which continue to weaken domestic manufacturing capacity.
Dr. Onyewuenyi stressed that Nigeria possesses the natural resources, intellectual strength, and industrial potential needed to become self-sufficient in medicine production, lamenting that poor execution and weak policy implementation remain the nation’s greatest obstacles.
“We have the raw materials and the ambition, but what we lack is a deliberate policy,” she declared during her keynote address. “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.”
According to her, political will and carefully tailored regulatory frameworks are the critical ingredients required to trigger a domestic pharmaceutical revolution capable of transforming Nigeria into a continental manufacturing powerhouse.
She urged the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu to move beyond policy announcements and aggressively fund the operational implementation of the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) and the Renewed Hope Agenda, insisting that 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 stated.
Her position was strongly reinforced by all the speakers at the conference.
At the executive management level, Ohuabunwa delivered a compelling charge to pharmaceutical leaders, insisting that the survival of the sector now depends on abandoning outdated administrative culture and replacing it with disciplined, data-driven operational leadership.
Speaking during an Executive Training Session, the Managing Consultant of Starteam Consult and founding Chief Executive Officer of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc argued that traditional bureaucratic systems and ceremonial performance evaluations can no longer sustain modern pharmaceutical enterprises operating in highly 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.”
According to him, pharmaceutical managers must move beyond rhetoric and embrace measurable execution systems capable of bridging the gap between strategic planning and operational reality.
He advocated for continuous weekly performance reviews, structured coaching systems, and real-time operational monitoring capable of identifying leading indicators before they become costly failures.
“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 identified the cultivation of high-performing “A-players” as essential to corporate sustainability, urging leaders to balance firmness with fairness while institutionalizing consistent coaching, one-on-one engagement, and active field supervision.
“Caring for an employee is not about keeping a poor performer,” he stated. “True care is giving them the clarity, support, and deadlines to deliver excellence.”
He further challenged the leadership of NAIP, led by National Chairman Pharm. (Sir) Bankole Ezebuiro, to institutionalize merit-based systems rooted in competence and professional knowledge rather than entitlement or patronage.
On the technical front, Dr. Onyewuenyi raised concerns about the inability of many Nigerian pharmaceutical companies to meet international manufacturing standards due to poor infrastructure, inadequate research investment, and weak scientific innovation systems.
During an exclusive interview with CEOAFRICA, she warned that many local firms remain technically disadvantaged because of limited laboratory facilities and decades of underinvestment in research and development.
“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 lamented.
As Chief Executive and Chief Executive Scientist Officer of Nolix Analytics, Dr. Onyewuenyi explained that her professional mission focuses on translating complex pharmaceutical science into practical manufacturing and regulatory systems.
This informed her delivery of two technical masterclasses at the conference centered on structural pre-formulation science and the practical application of Quality by Design (QbD), both designed to equip local manufacturers with internationally compliant production methodologies.
“Quality medicines do not reside only in other countries,” she said. “In Nigeria, we have all the raw materials and incredible expertise, but if we are not trained on how to use them properly, we are not doing well.”
She explained that Quality by Design enables manufacturers to build quality directly into pharmaceutical products through scientifically measured and evidence-based production systems that prioritize 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.
Dr. Onyewuenyi also called for an industry-wide gap assessment covering human capital, current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) structures, and industrial infrastructure to properly identify weaknesses hindering growth.
Drawing lessons from countries such as India and the United States, she advocated aggressive government-backed incentives capable of stimulating local API production, including tax incentives, pharmaceutical industrial parks, and long-term investment structures.
She further emphasized the importance of collaboration among manufacturers, universities, and regulatory agencies such as National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), urging stakeholders to establish credible, data-driven laboratory ecosystems where scientific integrity remains uncompromised.
“We want pharmaceutical scientist research that the industries can accept and that will contribute to industrial standards,” she stressed.
The pharmaceutical scientist also proposed the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), green chemistry, indigenous herbal medicine research, and computational pharmaceutical analysis into Nigeria’s long-term industrial roadmap, insisting that local flora and modern technology could position Nigeria as a major player in the global pharmaceutical economy.
Both Onyewuenyi and Ohuabunwa converged strongly on the issue of technical integrity, emphasizing that pharmaceutical manufacturing leaves absolutely no room for data falsification or operational compromise because of the direct consequences 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, the National Chairman of NAIP, Pharm. (Sir) Bankole Ezebuiro, commended both experts for what he described as practical and transformative blueprints capable of repositioning Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry for sustainable growth.
He assured stakeholders that the association would pursue the implementation of the ideas presented during the conference.
As deliberations concluded, both experts maintained that Nigeria’s pharmaceutical transformation can only succeed through disciplined execution, strong political commitment, strategic investment, and measurable accountability.
“It takes much more than rhetoric to achieve these lofty objectives,” Dr. Onyewuenyi emphasized. “Deliberate steps must be taken to put in place not just the right environment, but resources must also be strategically deployed to the relevant sectors and institutions.”
Ohuabunwa echoed the same sentiment, urging industry players not to abandon the momentum generated by the conference.
“Let us go back to our plants, our pharmacies, and our boardrooms with a renewed mindset,” he charged. “Performance management is the last mile towards good governance and health security. Let us commit not just to ambition, but to daily, disciplined execution.”
On a final note, Dr. Onyewuenyi expressed optimism that Nigeria possesses the structural and intellectual capacity to emerge as Africa’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturing hub if the frameworks discussed at the conference are fully implemented.
“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,” she concluded. “If we begin now to implement the framework established during this conference, the sky will be just the beginning.”
