Pharmacists under the umbrella of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) have insisted that establishing a National Postgraduate College of Pharmacy in the country remains key to solving the worsening workforce crisis in the nation’s pharmaceutical sector.
ACPN posited that the dearth of specialist pharmacists in manufacturing, clinical pharmacy, community pharmacy, public health pharmacy and other critical areas should be of concern to federal government, saying that a Postgraduate College of Pharmacy was of utmost need for the training of undergraduate and post-graduate pharmacists for the nation’s health system.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the ACPN 45th Annual National Scientific Conference in Abuja recently, National Chairman, Pharm. Ezeh Ambrose Igwekamma, stressed the need to have the institution in the country as only the West Africa Postgraduate College of Pharmacists (WAPCP) handles this training at the sub-regional level.
According to him, ‘’most countries including Ghana, abandoned the WAPCP for their home college, such that only Nigeria funds the subsidy gap of over 95 per cent to nurture the sub-regional college in forex.’’
He warned that Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector would continue to face specialist pharmacists in hospital, clinical, manufacturing, community, public health and pharmaceutical administration if urgent steps were not taken to establish a Postgraduate College of Pharmacy in the country.
The crisis of inadequately trained pharmacists, he further said, has been worsened by a large number of the professionals who leave the country every year for greener pastures.
Igwekamma revealed that about 9,000 pharmacists left Nigeria in the four-and-a-half years preceding December 2025, while more than 850 pharmacists emigrated in the first half of 2026 after obtaining letters of good standing from the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), mainly to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries.
“We have analysed the totality of endeavours which continue to suffer due to inadequate specialised expert/specialist Pharmacists who are Consultants in Manufacturing, Hospital and Clinical Pharmacy, Community Pharmacy, Social and Administrative Pharmacy, Public Health Pharmacy and other areas. This pool of experts are home-made, it guarantees Nigeria a seamless experience of handling the training of undergraduate and post-graduate Pharmacists for the health system. This should be a cause for concern for Nigerian authorities to do the needful,” he said.
The association warned that unless urgent reforms are undertaken, the country risks further weakening of the pharmaceutical sector which is critical to public health, medicine safety and healthcare delivery.
He lamented that while thousands of trained pharmacists continue to leave the country, widespread substance abuse is exposing persistent weaknesses in medicine regulation, drug distribution and healthcare governance.
“The fortunes of the profession continue to plummet rather dangerously in recent years, with data at the PSN National Secretariat confirming the exit of about 9,000 in the four-and-a-half years preceding December 2026. The First six months of 2026 have not been significantly better, as over 850 pharmacists have collected letters of good standing from the PCN and moved on to countries like Canada, the UK, Australia and, to a much lesser extent, the USA and some Asian territories,” he noted.
Highlighting some of the factors responsible for the ugly trend, he said, some of the glaring challenges are the not-too-impressive reward system and the poor drug distribution system, which impinges on the image of the profession, as the National Drug Distribution Guidelines enacted since 2015 are yet to be fully enforced, resulting in undefined public drug procurement policies. “We have other direct challenges with the pharmacy workforce development plan, which must be improved upon to raise a pool of skilled and productive pharma experts for the next level of the great nation we seek to build.’’
Igwekamma called on governments at all levels to confront structural deficiencies affecting pharmacy practice and national drug control with special focus on strengthening pharmacy practice for national development and confronting rising substance abuse, both of which he said underscore the need for stronger pharmaceutical governance.
He described pharmacy as a profession that has historically occupied a central place in healthcare, but warned that its fortunes have declined significantly in Nigeria despite its critical contribution to patient care.
Igwekamma urged the federal government to undertake sweeping reforms in the pharmaceutical sector, including amending the nation’s fake drug law to impose stiffer penalties, establishing a National Postgraduate College of Pharmacy, and creating a Drug Management Agency to strengthen medicine distribution across the country.
He also called on the federal government to sponsor executive bills or support private member bills to amend the Fake Drug Act, establish a Drug Management Agency to institutionalise the Drug Revolving Fund (DRF), and create a National Postgraduate College of Pharmacy to train specialist pharmacists locally.
“We suggest that the federal government set up a Presidential Committee on the pharmaceutical sector to push the agenda of these bills as well as streamline other specific challenges of the Pharma Sector,’’ he said.
Speaking further on the menace of counter medicines and drug abuse, Igwekamma opined that the existing sanctions were too weak to deter offenders and were discouraging investors in the pharmaceutical industry.
“The activities of charlatans are not encouraging pharma investors because of the extremely feeble sanction culture the Fake Drug Act offers,” he said. “In alignment with PSN proposals, ACPN calls for 20 years’ imprisonment for first offenders and life imprisonment, as well as outright forfeiture of all known assets, for subsequent offenders.”
He also urged the government to institutionalise the Drug Revolving Fund system through legislation that would streamline public procurement and distribution of medicines through a central pool. He explained that the National Council on Health resolved in December 2024 that all public procurement of medicines should be undertaken through the Drug Revolving Fund, requiring clearer legislative backing.
Igwekamma argued that establishing a dedicated Drug Management Agency would remove ambiguities surrounding medicine procurement, streamline nationwide distribution through a centralised system and strengthen regulatory oversight.
Stressing further on the desired professional reforms, ACPN noted the country’s gravest public health threats, demanding coordinated government action and sustained collaboration with healthcare stakeholders.
Citing the 2018 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime national survey, ACPN noted that the 2017 findings revealed extensive abuse of psychoactive substances across Nigeria, highlighting the growing scale of addiction nationwide.
According to a survey, cannabis was identified as the most abused substance, followed by opioids, codeine-containing cough syrups, sedatives, tranquillisers, ecstasy, solvents, inhalants, prescription stimulants and cocaine.
According to United Nations records, the combined estimates indicated that more than 21 million Nigerians were abusing various psychoactive substances, reflecting a crisis affecting families, communities and healthcare institutions across the country.
The ACPN attributed the persistence of substance abuse to multiple factors, including dysfunctional family environments, youth unemployment, poverty, peer influence, inadequate public awareness and ignorance of the harmful consequences of drug misuse.