Banks’ latest recapitalisation: Adeosun bullish on support to pharmaceutical businesses

FOLLOWING the latest guidelines from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that commercial banks with international authorisation should increase their capital base to N500billion and national banks to N200billion, the Chairman of St. Racheal’s Pharmaceutical Company, Mr Akinjide Adeosun has expressed optimism that bigger, stronger banks shall be positioned to lend to the pharmaceutical businesses, which shall help to assure long term desirous drug security in Nigeria.

According to him, it is a great initiative towards the US$1 trillion economy being targeted by the country through the apex bank.

Adeosun and others shared their thoughts and perspectives over the weekend at a media dialogue to commemorate the sixth anniversary of St. Racheal’s Pharmaceutical company in Lagos.

In his welcome address, the convener of the forum, Adeosun highlighted many challenges facing the sector and manufacturing in general.

He emphasised that bad policies and lack of political will on the part of political leaders are the major challenges suppressing genuine growth of the sector.

He said it was not that all the identified challenges were new as they had been there for ages but to find workable solution to them has been the real problem.

“And that is the essence of our discussion today- to provide solution that would help to move the pharmaceutical industry as well as the economy generally to appreciable heights.”

He said truly to access quality healthcare in Nigeria and elsewhere globally is very expensive as the cost of production and supply value chains of pharmaceutical products are high based on the already identified problems, the Nigeria case is more pathetic as Nigeria’s business environment is more hostile.

He noted that for St. Racheal’s Pharma to remain in business and grow steadily in the last six years where many bigger companies had closed shops for example, was because of its resilence and strong commitment to make great impact and leave good legacy beyond this generation.

He specifically emphasised the importance of Health Insurance Scheme and political will on the part of political class to bail the system out of the conundrum, saying these two concerns are critical to guarantee drug security in the country.

He said health insurance in particular must have to be strengthened and expanded to cover most Nigerians rather than a few in government employment and the few operators in the private sector.

According to him, aside Federal and few state governments that have adopted health insurance scheme which is even as low as five percent for their workforcè, who are also very few when compared with the country’s over 200 million population, larger percentage of Nigerians are in the private sector and majority of them don’t know what is health insurance is about let alone key into the scheme.

But unlike in the developed economies such as the UK, USA and even in Singapore, India and Bangladesh,  he pointed out, health insurance scheme is working and effective and the ease of doing business is also more favourable.

“So, we need more actions in Nigeria and more importantly on the part of government at all levels as they have more resources in their disposals and they also make policies to run the system.

“It is only healthy people that can translate to a healthy and prosperous country and that is why St. Racheal’s Pharma will continue to create jobs for many Nigerians and retain its earnings in the economy for further expansion and humanity services.”

The Director General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mrs Chinyere Almona and the National Chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Prince Adewale Oladigbolu as well as the Chairman and CEO of St. Racheal’s Pharmaceutical Company, among others however proffered workable solutions that could make Nigeria’s manufacturing sector do well and take its rightful place in the nation’s economy.

They said the importance of the manufacturing sector to the larger economy, especially in the areas of Gross Domestic Products, food security and employment generation was huge but the various challenges confronting the sector have made it very difficult for many manufacturers to survive.

They declared that business ecosystem for Nigeria’s manufacturing sector including the pharmaceutical industry is indeed unfriendly and until they are tackled and brought to the barest minimum, it would be difficult for Nigeria to be socio-economically prosperous.

The theme of the event, which has the immediate past Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Mrs. Olubamiwo Adeosun and the founder of HealthPlus Pharmacy, Mrs Bukky George among notable Nigerians in attendance was “Manufacturing Renaissance: The Panacea for Drug Security in Nigeria.”

Speaking on the theme, Mrs Almona, who was the keynote speaker,  said it is important that governments at both the federal and state governments provide enabling environment for manufacturers, especially of pharmaceuticals and allied operators to thrive.

She said there were many factors some of which are structural, fiscal and systemic and now high inflation that are working against the reasonable growth of the sector.

She listed unfriendly government policies, poor power supply, high cost of transportation, insecurity, high cost of borrowing, high taxes, high cost of foreign exchange, high cost of raw materials, import duties,  lack of collaboration and so forth as some of the challenges.

While commending St. Racheal’s Pharma Company for remaining steadfast despite the harsh business ecosystem, Mrs Almona said government would need to look into these directions and tackle the problems headlong to enable Nigeria and its people live quality life.

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