Tax waiver on pharma products begins January 2025 – FG

The federal government has said the implementation of the Executive Order on zero Value-Added Tax and excise duties on pharmaceutical products and medical devices will commence by January 2025. 

It would be recalled that President Bola Tinubu signed an executive order in June, in a bid to reduce the hike in prices of drugs. 

Giving an insight on the implementation of the Executive Order, the Director, Food and Drug Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Pharm. Olubunmi Aribeana, spoke during a working visit with other officials to a pharmaceutical firm, Sagar Vitaceutical Nigeria Limited, (SVNL) in Sagamu, Ogun State.

She stressed that the framework of the implementation has been developed and sent to the ministry of justice.

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“It was the initiative of the current minister of health to see that the cost of medicine is highly reduced in Nigeria and that led to the request of an executive order.  We have worked with the department to unlock the value chain to ensure that we develop the framework for the implementation.

“The framework of the implementation has been developed. It has been sent to the Ministry of Justice and as soon as everything is ratified, we will commence implementation in a month from now,” she said.

She blamed the hike in the cost of drugs to the increase in foreign exchange to import Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) by drug manufacturers, saying the ministry is poised to work with drug manufacturing companies to produce locally. 

“We are actually collaborating with Sagar Pharmaceutical on local manufacturing. We are from the ministry of health and as a government body we are looking at local manufacturers of at least 70 per cent of the content of what the Nigeria people need for their healthcare delivery system,” she said.

The Managing Director, SVNL, Pharm. Aakash Kothari, said the firm has commenced move to manufacture APIs locally, expressing the commitment to improve the healthcare in the country.

“Sagay is proud to say that we are part of a consortium, which is looking to manufacture APIs in Nigeria. We are only consulting and looking at the feasibility of how we can produce these API within Nigeria,” he said.