“These factors seriously affected our capacity to produce locally, as well as import finished products.”
, which has increased freight costs associated with importation of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients , excipients and finished products are among factors that have pushed up prices of essential and prescription drugs, and medical/pharmaceutical products lately.
According to medical experts, Personal Protective Equipment , especially facemasks, which jumped to about N400/N500 depending on the location remains one of the worst affected medical essentials. He added that as far back as last year, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria had warned of drug insecurity in the country, and now the society has been vindicated by current developments.
He further explained that: “The CBN intervention fund is meant for the development of the pharmaceutical industry, a special fund for manufacturers to expand their facilities. The fund is not for importation of COVID-19 products, but to cushion the impact of the pandemic on the industry.” Ohuabunwa said the money being provided by CBN for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry cannot immediately translate to improved product supply as much of the money is for industrial capacity output enhancement.
He said even though increased freight costs associated with importation of APIs, and excipients and finished products are also contributory factors, the CBN’s intervention funds, which about N10.5b has so far been released would, to a reasonable extent, help in addressing challenges in the sector that require urgent attention.
“You are aware that we have been clamouring for access to finance to members – we advocated for N300b in 2018 at nine per cent rate for members. He continued: “Access to forex, as you are aware, is core to our members, as much as repurposing our facilities, putting up new production lines, purchase of new machineries for facility expansion, purchase of raw materials, and upgrading of our facilities to meet WHO certification. These involve huge forex, as they are all import-dependent.
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