The Senate Committee on Health has summoned the Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo and the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, Mojisola Adeyeye, over the manufacturing, importation, and policy guideline for syringes in Nigeria.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe issued the summon in Abuja at a public hearing on ‘The Need to Regulate the Manufacturing, importation and Use of Syringes and Needles to Protect the Lives and Safety of Nigerians as well as the Economy of the Country’ yesterday.
The committee frowned at the failure of Ministry of Trade and Investment to implement the Backward Integration Policy on local production of syringes five years after it was validated.
It also slammed the NAFDAC for licensing companies in India and China to import syringes into the country.
Oloriegbe said despite the capacity of the local firms to meet the market demands, an estimated over one billion units per annum of syringe and needles were being imported into the country making the country to lose huge foreign exchange.
The committee directed the Health Minister to explain reasons public-owned hospitals are not using locally-manufactured syringes.
President of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Akin Oyediran, said all the seven licensed local manufacturers had the potential to produce 2.4 billion units of syringes per annum if provided with favorable business environment.
MTO/vanguard
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