SPEECH OF THE HONOURABLE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AT THE LAUNCHING OF THE NIGERIA PHARMACEUTICAL TRACEABILITY STRATEGY AND INAUGURATION OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE TRACEABILITY STRATEGY HELD ON THE 8TH OCTOBER 2020 AT THE MINISTRY’S CONFERENCE ROOM, 6TH FLOOR FMoH, FEDERAL SECRETARIAT COMPLEX, ABUJA
November 20, 2020,
Greetings ….
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The challenge of poor visibility in the pharmaceutical supply chain in Nigeria necessitates the adoption of innovative approaches and complementary partnerships to disrupt the cycle of wastages from expired commodities, shortages, infiltration of substandard and falsified products, diversion and pilferage of products in the health sector.
The launch of the Nigeria Pharmaceutical Traceability Strategy today demonstrates the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria to improving access to quality medicines and other health commodities in line with the second National Strategic Health Development Plan. Today’s launch and inauguration of the Traceability Steering Committee is also in line with the Ministry’s efforts at achieving goal number three (3) of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Good Health and Well-being of the citizenry.
The Nigeria Pharmaceutical Traceability Strategy is the outcome of the collaborative efforts of government, private sector, and development partner stakeholders across the health sector in Nigeria to define the vision and strategy for Nigeria, and highlight the steps required to develop an enabling environment for implementation of pharmaceutical traceability in the public and private sector supply chains using global standards.
The gains of implementing pharmaceutical traceability are noteworthy. Traceability will provide visibility of medicines from plant to patient; promote trust in the pharmaceutical sector and healthcare system; increase opportunity for trade of domestically manufactured pharmaceuticals; increase data quality to support pharmacovigilance; decrease infiltration of substandard and falsified (SF) medications; and ultimately, increase patient safety.
Further to the launch of the Nigeria Pharmaceutical Traceability Strategy and the need to establish a governance structure to lead the strategy, collaboration, outreach, and oversight of the implementation, I hereby inaugurate the National Traceability Steering Committee.
This committee is constituted of a team of stakeholders across public and private sector organizations that will provide strategic direction, decision-making authority, resource mobilization, and oversight of implementation activities to achieve the strategic objectives outlined in the Nigeria Pharmaceutical Traceability Strategy document.
The committee will be co-chaired by the Director, Food & Drugs Services of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and the Director, Drug Registration and Regulatory Affairs of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
I recognize the contributions of our development partners, Agencies of Government and esteemed private sector stakeholders and still solicit your continued support and cooperation to achieve this laudable goal of pharmaceutical traceability in Nigeria. Thank you all.