…call for govt intervention, policy enforcement to curb spread of fake drugs
Stakeholders in the Nigerian health sector have called on the federal government to focus more on ensuring that health care is accessible and affordable for all Nigerians. This is as they noted the widespread availability of health facilities that are becoming too expensive for most Nigerians.
Speaking during the BusinessDay health conference in Abuja on Thursday, stakeholders also stressed the urgent need for coordinated regulatory action, public awareness, and policy-driven reforms to address systemic challenges undermining access to safe, affordable, and quality healthcare across the country.
Mustapha Zakari, executive vice chairman of Masslife Healthcare Limited, who spoke during a panel session, decried that more than half of the Nigerian population was multidimensionally poor and unable to afford healthcare when required.
According to him, the government and private sector players in the sector have continued to finance the supply side of healthcare by building facilities and leaving a huge demand gap.
“We budget for building hospitals, training doctors, and manufacturing pharmaceuticals, but utilisation is low because the people who need them cannot afford them. We are focusing on. Supply and do nothing to aid demand.
“There is a need for the government to provide financial incentives to households to increase the purchasing power of the people so that they can access healthcare. More than half of Nigerians are high in multidimensional poverty and need support,” Zakari said.
Zakari also decried that healthcare financing in Nigeria is high, adding that the prepayment mechanism for health insurance was not yet developed to the standard required. He noted that 20 years after the development of the health endurance scheme in Nigeria, coverage still low beneath 20 percent.
“We should start considering how to empowered people to afford healthcare. The government can budget for demand side just as it budgets for supply side,” he said.
Speaking on the healthcare regulatory landscape, Chineye Ajayi, Legal Counsel at Olaniwun Ajayi LP, representing Ibi Ogunbiyi, a partner at the firm, decried the poor implementation of existing drug laws, such as the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods Act of 2004.
“Laws exist, but without proper enforcement, they become ineffective. We hear of raids and arrests, like the recent one in Idumota Market in Lagos, but the public rarely sees the outcome. Until offenders are consistently penalised and made examples of, fake drug operations will persist,” Ajayi said.
She also advocated for a comprehensive public orientation strategy to raise awareness about the dangers of counterfeit drugs. According to her, policy incentives and public education, combined with consistent enforcement, can drive behavioural change and reduce harmful practices in the sector.
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Ajayi further called on the government to explore policy tools that attract private investment into healthcare. “Imagine a policy that grants tax exemptions for the first five years of investment in critical health sectors. That alone could attract a wave of venture capital and private sector funding,” she added.
In his remarks, Adetolu Ademujimi, Technical Adviser and Health Financing Officer at APIN Public Health Initiatives, emphasized the need to rethink Nigeria’s approach to healthcare delivery.
Ademujimi urged regulatory agencies to focus more on frontline outlets used by ordinary Nigerians and called for strategic collaboration between federal and state agencies to strengthen governance and improve health outcomes.
He cited personal observations of unsafe and unsupervised drug practices in informal drug outlets in Abuja, warning that over 80% of Nigerians rely on such unregulated sources for primary care.
“These unregistered patent medicine vendors are performing medical procedures, administering IVs, and even carrying out abortions without oversight. Who is regulating them?
“We often focus too much on the supply side, hospitals and infrastructure while neglecting demand-side realities,”
Ademujimi said.
On the topic of local drug production, he noted that while the idea has been widely endorsed, significant bottlenecks remain. “Investors still face challenges like high interest rates, lack of concessional financing, poor infrastructure, and multiple layers of taxation,” he explained.
He commended recent initiatives promoting local pharmaceutical manufacturing, particularly efforts led by Muhammad Ali Pate, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, but stressed the need for demand-driven investment guided by real-time data on national health priorities.
He also emphasized the importance of broader macroeconomic stability, security, and streamlined tax regimes. “Nobody wants to invest in a system where federal, state, and local authorities all impose overlapping taxes. That’s not sustainable,” he said.
He also stressed the urgent need for better inter-agency collaboration, improved human resources, and innovations like national directories of primary healthcare centres to streamline patient referrals.
