FG Plans Policy to Boost Local Syringe, Needles Manufacturing

FG Plans Policy to Boost Local Syringe, Needles Manufacturing

Deji Elumoye and Udora Orizu in Abuja

The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has assured that his ministry would ensure that all federal government-owned health institutions in the country would only procure and use syringes and needles manufactured in Nigeria.

Ehanire gave the assurance yesterday in Abuja during a public hearing that was organised by the Senate’s committees on Health and Industry Trade and Investment.

The committees are jointly probing a petition by the Medical Device Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MDMAN).

The MDMAN, in its petition, alleged that government at all tiers were not patronising their products but chose to embrace foreign syringes and needles.

But Osagie told the panel that his ministry would ensure that the Federal Executive Council would approve the policy within the next weeks.

He said that it would also be an offence for any federal health institutions in the country to administer vaccines procured by federal government, with foreign syringes and needles when the policy is in place.

Osagie said: “We have listened to the position of the committee and we want to assure the chairman and other distinguished members that we will come up with the policy and get approval from the Federal Executive Council within six weeks as suggested by the committee.

“We are in support of the move to encourage local manufacturing of syringes and needles because it is the best way to create jobs and take Nigerians out of
poverty.

“We are all interested in developing local capacities to encourage local manufacturers, which is an item on the agenda of the President to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.”

On his part, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, urged both the Minister of Health and his counterpart in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo, to do everything possible to encourage the syringes and needles manufacturing firms.

Oloriegbe said: “We want you (Health Minister), to come up with a policy that will make it mandatory for all federal health institutions, the FMCs and teaching hospitals to use locally manufactured syringes and needles. That is the best way to encourage local manufacturers.

“It will be in our recommendations as a committee that all federally owned hospitals, without exception, must procure and use only locally manufactured syringes and needles from companies that are registered and approved by the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to produce them in Nigeria. We will also demand that locally manufactured syringes and needles should be used to administer all vaccines procured by government.”

Also speaking, the Director General of the NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, informed the panel that the agency licensed some people to import syringes and needles because the local manufacturers lacked the capacity to produce the required quantity needed in Nigeria.

But the President of the MDMAN, Mr. Akin Oyediran, said that the NAFDAC relied on old data to approve the importation of the products.

Oyediran said: “We have the capacity to produce the required syringes and needles that we need in the country. One of the manufacturers in Nigeria, the Jubilee Syringe B, which I am the MD, is the largest manufacturers of Syringes in Africa.

“We have just been approached by other countries in Africa to please export our syringes to them. There is no doubt about having the capacity. I think NAFDAC is speaking based on old data because our company is now about three years old. We produce over 1.7 million syringes per day, six days a week.

“We welcome the move by the Senate asking the minister of Health to come up with a policy that would give exclusive rights to the local manufacturers of syringes to produce the products for all federally funded health institutions in Nigeria.”

Related Articles