The minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, has assured Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu was working tirelessly to address the high cost of drugs and the exit of some multinational pharmaceutical companies from Nigeria.
According to the Alausa, Tinubu was having sleepless nights over the issues, even as he assured that the Ministry of Health was looking for sustainable ways to solve them.
The minister, while speaking with journalists shortly after the official commissioning of a new clinical complex at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Ebutte Metta, Lagos, stressed that the President was determined to build sustainable, durable and comprehensive healthcare systems for Nigerians.
“Mr. President is having sleepless nights on this drug scarcity. He has discussed with us what we need to do. What President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants for this country is sustainable, durable, comprehensive health care. He just doesn’t want us to scratch the surface.
“Tinubu is very real and very truthful to Nigerians. He wants to fix the healthcare system, and he is working to deploy his time and resources of the country into our healthcare system. I know things are hard, but Nigerians should bear with us. Things will be turned to get better in the not-too-distant future,” Alausa disclosed.
He averred that the ministry was working hard to come up with multifaceted solution to tackle the issues.
“Number one, we have the problem of counterfeiting as well. We are working with NAFDAC and Customs to reduce the importation of counterfeit drugs into our country. We are also working with some of the local pharmaceutical companies to increase production.
“Some of the companies that are planning to leave, we are talking to them to bear with us not to leave. We are also working on various forms of integrations where we can encourage local manufacturing in our country,” he asserted.
Alausa disclosed that the federal government was planning to open six medical industries across the six geopolitical zones, adding that “We are putting all our energy into ensuring that this medical industrialisation programme starts quickly. We are going to be opening six medical industrialization in each of the six geopolitical zones.
“I know the Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has committed land for us in the southwestern geopolitical zone. We’ll be talking to the other governors about setting up these industrial parks across our country. We are working to find a sustainable, durable, watch my word durable and sustainable solution to our problem. We don’t want to do patchwork. The president does not want us to do patchwork and that is why we are going to solve the problem.”
On inadequate manpower, the minister assured that the country will produce over 120,000 nurses by the end of the year.
Explaining further, he posited that, “Between the time we came in as a government, we were enrolling 28,000 nurses in a year. After this president took over, we enrolled about 66,000 nurses in nursing schools. Before the end of the year, we will produce over 120,000 nurses in the country.”
