Medications worth N205.38bn were imported into Nigeria from January to September 2022, The PUNCH reports.
The figure is contained in an analysis of the first quarter to the third quarter of the National Bureau of Statistics’ foreign trade reports.
The reports revealed that most of the medications were imported from China, India, Malaysia, and the Netherlands.
The PUNCH observed that the medications imported in the second quarter were the highest, followed by the importations made in the first quarter and the third quarter.
Nigeria imported N63.01bn in medications in the first quarter (January to March), mostly from the Netherlands (N22.32bn), India (N18.77bn), China (N8.63bn), and France (N2.33bn).
There was, however, an increase in medication imports in the second quarter (April to June) worth N93.63bn. The medications imported for the quarter were primarily from Malaysia (N46.51bn), India (N26.02bn), China (N10.02bn), Germany (N2.06bn), and France (N1.3bn).
In the third quarter (July to September), the report revealed that medications worth N48.7bn were imported into Nigeria.
The import is among the ninth-highest in the quarter under review.
The data showed that Premium Motor Spirit topped the chart of imported goods with N1.2tn, followed by gas oil at N261.6bn and Durum wheat at N252.6bn.
Although the data did not specify where Nigeria imported most of the medications from, it showed that the top 10 import trading partners for the quarter were China, the Netherlands, India, Belgium, the United States, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway.
Earlier in August, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, decried the high dependency on the importation of health goods in the African region.
Ehanire, who spoke at the 72nd session of the World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Africa in Lome, Togo, said there was a need to increase the manufacturing capacity in Africa.
In a statement signed by the Deputy Director/Head, Media and Publicity, of the Federal Ministry of Health, Ahmadu Chindaya, the minister said the journey so far had not been easy for the sub-region due to its high dependency on imported goods.
Even though Nigeria is still recovering from COVID-19, Ehanire stated that the country is working hard to strengthen public health security to be better prepared for future challenges and to improve routine health care to achieve universal health coverage.
