The integration of community pharmacists in COVID-19 vaccination rollout in the country would help tackle hesitancy among Nigerians, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has said.
National Chairman of ACPN, Adewale Oladigbolu, stated this yesterday in Abuja during the national executive officers retreat of the association and launch of ACPN Leadership College.
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The theme of the retreat was ‘Advancing Solutions to the Challenges of Community Pharmacists’.
He said COVID-19 vaccination would soon commence in community pharmacies nationwide, adding that the number of vaccinated Nigerians would also increase as a result of the closeness of community pharmacists to the people and the trust they have in them.
The President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Prof Cyril Odianose Usifoh, said signing of the pharmacist bill into law would help checkmate the menace of quackery in the country.
He said vaccine hesitancy is a big challenge in Nigeria but that community pharmacists would help bridge the gap.
“I believe very strongly that community pharmacy should be vaccination centres for not just COVID-19 but for all forms of vaccination so that the teeming population of the country can get their required vaccination when necessary,” he said.
The Chairman, Board of Trustee of ACPN, Dr Nelson Uwaga, said the association was working towards securing loans from bank to deploy more technology to improve the practice.
He said this will also help tackle quackery and fake drugs in the system.
