The MD JNC Int’l Ltd and President of Healthcare Federation of Nigeria, Clare Omatseye has called for strategic collaborations to address the crisis in the health sector.

She made the call while giving the key note address at the just concluded 91st conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN, Oluyole 2018 in Ibadan.

According to her, “As pharmacists we have a crisis because 70 to 80 per cent of our drugs are imported.  The contribution of pharmacy to the whole GDP of the country is 0.74%, the contribution of pharmaceutical manufacturers to the total manufacturers in Nigeria is only 2.38% which is very appalling. Why this is so is because we import almost everything, the raw materials, the packaged materials, we also have high taxes on importation.

“There are a lot of inefficiencies in the system, therefore what we are doing right now is not going to work, we need to be able to disrupt the status quo. At the end of day government cannot do it alone. Government has the responsibility of providing access to health care to every Nigerian but how many healthcare centres are working?

“So the truth is that public and private sectors have to come together through close cooperative and strategic partnership. Also inter-sectorial rivalry needs to be put to rest, pharmacists and doctors must be united because we have a common goal which is Nigerian patients.

“It cannot be business as usual, we need to understand the challenges affecting us and build strategic collaborations.”

She added that an investment of about $15billion is required to close the infrastructural gap existing between the pharmaceutical industry in the country and those of countries like India

She said, “We need close to $10billion  to $15billion to close the infrastructure gap, this cannot be done overnight. We need good governance, we need to look at cooperate social responsibilities, get rid of corruption.”

She also lamented that only 3.8% of the consolidated revenue budget of the country goes to health care sector as against the 15% agreed upon at the Abuja declaration.