‘Pharm sector needs concession to thrive’

The federal government has been urged to provide concessions or a special consideration for the pharmaceutical sector of the economy.

The concessions should include access to foreign exchange (forex) at a good rate with accelerated process of clearing goods at the ports, noted Chairman, Biomedical Limited, Idowu Obasa.

Obasa who spoke to newsmen, said imported raw materials for pharmaceuticals often take two months to get cleared at the Apapa port.

“Nigeria is an import dependent country. Almost everything including the raw materials is imported. The government doesn’t know how to resolve the forex issue yet. We are handicapped by lack of access to foreign exchange which is both unavailable and expensive. The forex issue doesn’t allow us to deliver our products at a cheap price.”

Obasa, whose firm is the first to locally produce intravenous fluids (drip), lauded the federal government’s intervention to assist businesses through the Bank of Industry (BOI).

He said the company would be marking its 40 years anniversary with the launch of its syrup factory as well as the deworming exercise of 400,000 children across all the states in Nigeria except the state with high incidence of insecurity. This was possible through funding from BOI, he noted.

“They walked into the factory, offered to assist and went through the entire process clinically and professionally and today we are about to formally present 22 new syrups to the market, with more to come,” Obasa explained.