‘CBN was right on forex sales policy’

The Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Companies of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMGMAN) says the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was right to intervene in sale of foreign exchange.

The PMGM lauded CBN’s decision to ensure that, at least, 60 percent of forex sales were made to local manufacturers, describing the policy as timely intervention to boost local manufacturing.

A statement issued by the association said its Chairman, Mr Okey Akpa, called on the federal government to address the anomaly created by CET, whereby imported medicines attracted zero duty while raw and packaging materials for local manufacturing attracted up to 20 percent duty.

He said that higher duty rate for locally manufactured drugs was inimical to national interest, appreciating efforts made to address the CET imbalance.

The chairman said that access to funding at single digit interest rate was needed to reverse the catastrophic decline in the sector.

The association said research in the last 18 months indicated that capacity utilisation among pharma manufacturers was at an all-time low of 20 percent, while over a third of PMG-MAN members have shut production due to lack of access to forex for purchase of critical raw material, mainly active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and machinery inputs.

Akpa said that the consequences of these challenges included increase in cost of healthcare treatment and shortage of medicines across the country.

He said that the situation, if left unchecked, would lead to unprecedented level of medicines’ scarcity, exorbitant prices and an overdependence on drug importation, which may expose the nation again to the menace of faking and counterfeiting.