Chairman, Central Pharmaceutical and Allied Wholesale Market, Onitsha, Bridgehead, Uchenna Eze, has disclosed that the construction of the coordinated wholesale drug centre at Oba, near Onitsha, Anambra will commence in January 2020.
Eze told newsmen in Onitsha that the project was being delayed due to inability to finish paper work, including registration with the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria, building plan approval, topography test and Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposed site.
Federal Government had set January 2019 as deadline to end open drug markets in the country and for the introduction of the coordinated wholesale centres across the country for distribution of drugs.
According to him, the federal government plan was to checkmate the distribution of fake medical products in the country, mostly in Lagos, Onitsha, Aba and Kano.
“We did not fold our arms since the government gave the directive, we are doing our own home work to make sure we comply with the directive.”
“We are done with all that now and have cleared the site as well as collected tenders from developers,” he said.
The chairman also said the body had met the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, and Gov. Willie Obiano, who promised to support the project.
He described the Onitsha drug market as a “chaotic drug distribution outlet, saying that many distributors were not operating with licenses.
He said the relocation to the coordinated centre would help to solve the incessant challenges of harassment and arrest of traders in the market by security operatives.
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