PSN Calls for Clearance of Healthcare Pharmaceuticals in Ports

The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigerian (PSN) has appealed to the Federal Government to direct the custom services to speedily clear healthcare and pharmaceuticals in the ports.

The PSN President, Mazi Sam Ohuabun­wa, made this call at a media briefing in Lagos State recently to mark the World Hepatitis Day (WHD) 2021.

As the president, he implored the FG to sus­pend all duties and levies on essential pharmaceu­ticals and healthcare equipment for the next three months. “This is to assure sustainable supply and pricing stability to Nige­rians in dire need at this period of global health emergency.”

Ohuabun­wa, however, bemoaned that global supply chains have been disrupted including dominant drug supply channels from China and India. Adding, he said that many countries had or were planning to ban the export of drugs and medical supplies. “We have no choice but to produce these items locally”.

Following this, the president explained that the committee has identified a few key local pharmaceutical companies who shall be granted naira and FX funding facilities to support the procurement of raw materials and equipment required to significantly increase local drug production in the country.

These loans, Ohuabunwa explained, would be granted at the single-digit interest rate and for long tenures, including granting necessary moratorium.

Meanwhile, the society applauded the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its decision to provide a N100 billion loan package to the health sector, with a focus on the local manu­facturing sector.

For the president, this gesture is a long-awaited development. “For years, we have drawn attention to the dangers of total dependence on importation for our local drug needs. We have complained that this creates a real national security exposure. Yet not much attention was paid to us.

“Pharmacists have argued that pharmaceuticals should get part of the attention paid to Agriculture to all intents and purposes, as medicines come next to food. And to be truthful, for some of our people, medicines have become food.”

While highlighting that although they wished they realised this before now, Ohuabunwa said, “We believe it is better to be late than never”.

He added: “The PSN commended the CBN and the Bankers Committee for its bold action, which is a major impetus to realising the National Health Policy objective of producing a minimum of 70 per cent of our essential drugs need locally as companies access the special intervention funds and increase their capacities.”

In his words, the implementation would be swift and wholesome, devoid of the usual lending bureaucracies of “come today and come tomorrow”.

Speaking on the theme, “Hepatitis Can’t Wait” for WHD, the president emphasised the urgency needed to eliminate hepatitis as a public health problem by 2030.

“WHD is observed each year to raise awareness of viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver that causes severe liver disease,” he warned.

With research showing that every 30 seconds someone dies from a hepatitis-related illness, which has been worsens by the current COVID-19 crisis. And since pharmacists can’t wait to act on viral hepatitis and equip people with the knowledge to act, the PSN has set up screening, education, and enlightenment campaigns all over the country.