Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has called on the Federal Government to engage their members in community data gathering and COVID-19 testing with Rapid Molecular Diagnostic stripe.
A statement signed and made available to BDSUNDAY by the chairman of the Association, Samuel Oluwaorompin Adekola also stressed the need for the community pharmacists to benefit from the distribution of the personal protective equipment (PPE) and every other palliative designed for the healthcare sector in this Covid-19 era.
According to the statement, today in Africa, Nigeria has conducted less than 15,000 tests compared to Ghana, which has done close to 70,000 tests, South Africa with over 100,000 tests and Egypt with close to 60,000
It however, attributed this set back to the Nigerian government failure to engage the private sector, particularly community pharmacies and the preponderance of private laboratories.
“The healthcare sector, especially in the downstream prominently positioned Community Pharmacies as a veritable instrument for positive healthcare interventions in our nation just as in other economies.
“Finding a favourable and low-priced funding has been a big barrier to the growth and continuous existence of Community Pharmacy endeavours in Nigeria, worse still is the challenge of products prices astronomical increase that has characterised the COVID-19 era across the globe”, the statement added.
While appreciating the recent federal government intervention through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the N100billion intervention fund established for essential services, Adekola in the statement said, “We call on the federal government to prevail on the CBN to forthwith establish special fund in the like manner as done during this COVID-19 intervention as a permanent platform for the growth of Community Pharmacy in Nigeria with the understanding that Community Pharmacy segment of the pharmaceutical value chain is pivotal as the major link between the manufacturing and consumers of health with huge potential of gainful employment generation.”
