Pharmacists request extension of duty waiver on health products

Nigeria’s pharmacists are calling on the Federal Government to prolong the duration of the executive order that grants duty waivers on healthcare products, extending it beyond the current two-year limit.

In separate interviews with our correspondent on Wednesday, pharmacists expressed their concerns that the two-year deadline is insufficient to achieve meaningful progress and development in the pharmaceutical industry.

Prof. Muhammad Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, revealed on his X.com handle on Friday that President Bola Tinubu had signed an executive order to revolutionize the Nigerian health sector by increasing local production of healthcare essentials, including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, and biological products.

Pate said the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, was to take the next steps towards codifying the new order.

According to him, the order is pivotal to the success of the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain, which was approved in October 2023 by Tinubu.

He explained that the order introduced zero tariffs, excise duties, and Value Added Tax on items like the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, excipients, and other essential raw materials required for manufacturing crucial health products like drugs, syringes, needles, long-lasting insecticidal nets, and rapid diagnostic kits, among others.

Speaking with our correspondent on Wednesday,the National Chairman of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Adewale Oladigbolu, urged the government to extend the order beyond two years.

While commending Tinubu for signing the order, Oladigbolu stated, “The order is for two years, which I think is too short for us to make progress in the pharmaceutical sector as regards manufacturing. It will be interesting to know that countries like India have been deliberate about their efforts to grow their pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, being one of the highest employers of people all over the world.

“We wish that the period of coverage will be extended beyond two years because now investors will be aggregating their funds to procure equipment and invest. It takes time to build the business case, and investment in the pharmaceutical sector, it takes time to do market development, it takes time to install the equipment and capacity. So, two years is too short.”

Also, a former President of the Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria, Dr. Lolu Ojo, commended the government for signing the order.

Ojo said, “We must commend the government for removing tax from the products that we import because the bulk of drugs that we consume in Nigeria are imported. So, if you tax it so much, what we are taxing is our people because the businessman who imports the drug must be able to recover his costs to sustain his business.

“Before now, some products had zero duty but the government introduced import adjustment tax, which could be as high as 20 per cent. The singular factor that causes high prices of drugs is the exchange rate. So, if the government does something about the exchange rate, I think it will be good and it will make things go better.

“The government also needs to look into the ease of doing business. It’s not easy to get our goods to pass through the ports, you have to pay a lot of money to do that. The government should help us with the unofficial charges, then things will get better.”

“The government also needs to look into the ease of doing business. It’s not easy to get our goods to pass through the ports, you have to pay a lot of money to do that. The government should help us with the unofficial charges, then things will get better.”

Ojo, however, expressed optimism that the order will help to fix the sector in two years.

“If things turn out better as they must have proposed, so the two-year period is possibly a period to see the impact of the tax remover on the cost of drugs.”

Similarly, Mr Folasade Lawal, a community pharmacist, stated that the pharmaceutical sector might not achieve much in two years.

“First, I applaud the government for signing the executive order because it’s the right step in the right direction. For this to be sustainable, we should look at sustainable interventions that will last for as long as possible; we should also put a lot of effort into research and development, especially our indigenous products so that we can make our drugs from our natural resources.

“Then, we want the executive order extended beyond two years because I do not see us achieving much in two years because it would take quite a while for the adjustments to reflect on the pricing. Everybody is happy with the order but I think the two years is too small. But then, I know that if they do this well, they are likely to extend it.”