The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has unveiled its Community Pharmacists Assessment and Career Progression Institute (CPACPI) framework at the 84th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Montreal, Canada.
The presentation, held during the four-day congress from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, 2026, placed Nigeria’s efforts to reform community pharmacy practice on the international stage.
The congress, themed “One Health, One Pharmacy – Bridging science, practice, and education,” brought together pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, educators, healthcare professionals and industry leaders from around the world.
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The framework was presented on behalf of ACPN by its National Chairman, Mr Ambrose Igwekamma Ezeh, who described CPACPI as a deliberate strategy to strengthen professional development and build a sustainable community pharmacy workforce.
“Our mission through CPACPI is not merely to create an academic milestone, but to build a resilient, sustainable workforce capable of delivering world-class primary healthcare,” Ezeh said.
CPACPI was introduced by ACPN in 2025 to address the absence of a structured, competency-based career progression pathway for pharmacists practising in community settings.
The initiative seeks to move community pharmacy beyond the traditional role of medicine dispensing by promoting clinical competence, continuous professional development, mentorship, digital health integration and quality improvement.
A study presented alongside the framework, titled “The Implementation Gap: Perceived Barriers and External Threats to Community Pharmacists’ Participation in a Career Advancement Scheme in Nigeria,” examined the experiences of 182 practising community pharmacists across Nigeria.
The research identified workload pressures, limited practice time and the high cost of training and certification as major barriers to participation in professional development programmes.
It also identified weak regulatory enforcement as the most significant systemic threat to community pharmacy practice, while illegal medicine outlets and increasing competition from patent medicine vendors were cited as other major concerns.
According to the findings, more than three-fifths of respondents said the demands of daily practice limited their ability to participate consistently in career advancement programmes.
The study further found that younger and mid-career pharmacists with fewer than 20 years of professional experience were significantly more concerned about the financial burden of professional development than their more senior counterparts.
Ezeh said ACPN was responding to the findings through targeted interventions under the CPACPI framework.
He said the association would introduce tiered, subsidised professional development grants to reduce the financial burden on younger pharmacists, while flexible and self-paced digital learning modules would allow practitioners to acquire additional competencies without significantly disrupting patient care.
He also called for stronger multi-agency enforcement against illegal medicine outlets and unaccredited vendors to protect professional practice and improve patient safety.
At the centre of CPACPI is a five-band career progression structure comprising Community Pharmacist, Senior Community Pharmacist, Community Pharmacy Specialist, Community Pharmacy Senior Specialist and Community Pharmacy Consultant.
Progression through the bands would be determined by measurable professional competencies, experience and continuous development, rather than years of service alone.
The ACPN also used the international platform to advocate for greater recognition of accredited community pharmacies as private-sector primary healthcare facilities.
“There is a pressing need for government authorities, policy-makers, and national health authorities to identify and designate qualified community pharmacies as official primary healthcare facility providers in the private sector,” Ezeh said.
He noted that community pharmacies were among the most accessible healthcare points for millions of Nigerians and should be formally integrated into the country’s primary healthcare architecture and health insurance system.
According to him, such integration would expand access to healthcare, improve patient outcomes and reduce pressure on overstretched public health facilities.
Ezeh said the success of CPACPI would ultimately depend on collaboration among regulatory agencies, professional bodies, policymakers and other stakeholders.
“The long-term success of the CPACPI framework rests on our collective ability to bridge the gap between policy design and real-world execution,” he said.
He identified regulatory support, financial accessibility, reduced workload barriers and stronger enforcement of market standards as critical to the sustainability of the initiative.
The ACPN said the international presentation demonstrated that innovative solutions to healthcare workforce challenges could emerge from developing countries and provide lessons for other low- and middle-income countries.
From its introduction in Nigeria in 2025 to its presentation at the 2026 FIP World Congress, CPACPI has evolved into a broader reform proposal aimed at strengthening community pharmacy, advancing Universal Health Coverage and positioning pharmacists as key players in primary healthcare delivery.
