The Senate has urged the Federal Government to initiate a policy that will make it mandatory for all government-owned hospitals to use locally-manufactured syringes and needles.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe (APC, Kwara) stated this at a public hearing on Thursday 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”.
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Oloriegbe said: “We want you (Health Minister) to come up with a policy that will make it mandatory for all federal health institutions, the FMCs and teaching hospitals to use locally manufactured syringes and needles.
“That is the best way to encourage local manufacturers.
“It will be in our recommendations as a committee that all federally owned hospitals, without exception must procure and use only locally manufactured syringes and needles from companies that are registered and approved by NAFDAC to produce them in Nigeria.
“We will also demand that locally manufactured syringes and vaccines should be used to administer all vaccines procured by government.”
Responding, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, told the panel that his ministry would ensure that the Federal Executive Council approve the policy within the next weeks.
According to Osagie, it will be also be an offence for any federal health institutions in the country to administer vaccines procured by Federal Government, with foreign syringes and needles when the policy is in place.
He said, “We have listened to the position of the committee and we want to assure the Chairman and other distinguished members that we will come up with the policy and get approval from the Federal Executive Council within six weeks as suggested by the Committee.
“We are in support of the move to encourage local manufacturing of syringes and needles because it is the best way to create jobs and take Nigerians out of poverty.”
Production capacity
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, informed the panel that the local manufacturers of syringes and needles in Nigeria lacked the capacity to produce the required quantity needed in Nigeria hence the agency licensed some people to import the shortfall.
But the President, Medical Device Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Akin Oyediran, said the NAFDAC DG was relying on old data.
Oyediran said, “We have the capacity to produce the required syringes and needles that we need in the country.
“One of the manufacturers in Nigeria, the Jubilee Syringe, which I am the MD is the largest manufacturers of Syringes in Africa.
“We have just been approached by other countries in Africa to please export our syringes to them. There is no doubt about having the capacity. I think NAFDAC is speaking based on old data because our company is now about three years old. We produce over 1.7 million syringes per day, six days a week.
“We welcome the move by the Senate asking the minister of health to come up with a policy that would give exclusive rights to the local manufacturers of syringes to produce the products for all federally funded health institutions in Nigeria.
“The local manufacturers are actually the highest supplies of syringes and needles for hospitals. There is no point why government hospitals should use imported syringes when we have the locally manufactured ones.”
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