For guidance, direction, efficient discharge of functions of Council, Minister of Health inaugurates Pharmacists’ Council.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has inaugurated the Governing Council of the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN) to provide guidance and direction for the efficient discharge of the functions of the Council as stipulated in its enabling Act.
The Minister, who inaugurated the Council on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari partially through physical representation and virtually on Monday, 15th June, 2020, reiterated that the PCN is vital to the health care system as reflected in its functions of regulating training of pharmacist, pharmacy technicians and the practice of the profession. “Key issues that should engage the attention of this Council include: standard of training, code and ethics of practice, proliferation of illegal premises, unsatisfactory distribution of medicines and drug abuse”, the Minister said.
Dr. Ehanire further charged the newly inaugurated Council to refocus the various aspects of the profession to meet up with the realities of today; saying that “the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought to fore the vulnerability of the nation as it concerns medicines’ security. The inability of the nation to meet its needs of simple things such as face masks, surgical gloves, plaster, cotton bandage, and other related items must be addressed.”
“It is therefore paramount that the profession of pharmacy in Nigeria immediately starts to think of new ways of doing things, a situation where the focus is on importation of finished products and compounding of raw materials is clearly not acceptable. Strategies must be developed to utilize local resources for the production of pharmaceutical raw materials, (both incipient and active pharmaceutical ingredients). Our maize, yam, cassava, fruits and many others that go into waste due to poor storage need to be put into meaningful use for the pharmaceutical industry, the nation’s vast petroleum resources need to be also exploited”, the Minister charged.
The Honourable Minister further reiterated that “Players in the profession and the pharmaceutical industry need to think bigger things; they must dream dreams and build real pharmaceutical entities that will meet the expectations of the nation. Entrepreneurs need to pull resources in order to be strong and big enough to be able to dabble into the very competitive global market. Experience from Europe and America clearly shows that this is the way forward. The PCN Council should make efforts to bring all players in the industry together.”
He tasked the members of the Council under the Chairmanship of Prof. (Pharm). Ahmed. T. Mora to ensure that it aligns its functions with the vision of the President for the country on health as spelt out in the 2nd edition of the National Strategic Health Development Plan (2018-2020).
At the inauguration, Prof. (Pharm). Ahmed. T. Mora who was inaugurated as the chairman of the Governing Council of PCN assured the Minister, the Permanent Secretary, Health, Abdulaziz M. Abdullahi, and the Directors of Federal Ministry of Health who graced the inauguration as well as the Pharmacists who in their numbers attended the inauguration virtually and the nation that he will do his best to steer the PCN to resolve all the disputes and address all grey areas challenging the Pharmacists profession.
The PCN is a parastatal of Government established by Act Cap P17 LFN 2004, with the statutory responsibility of regulating and controlling pharmacy education, training and practice in all aspects and ramification.