The National Presidents of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Prof Cyril Usifoh, and the Nigeria Automobile Technicians Association, Magaji Sani, have called on President Bola Tinubu to address the high inflation rate, which has adversely led to a continuous increase in the cost of various commodities.
The National Bureau of Statistics, in its Consumer Price Index (October 2023), said Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 27.33 per cent; 0.61 percentage points, from the 26.72 per cent that was recorded in September.
In September, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria announced an increase in pharmaceutical products by 300 per cent.
Speaking in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, Usifoh stated that the cost of drugs would continue to increase if the issues adversely affecting their prices were not addressed by the Federal Government.
He said, “What is the price of diesel? What is the exchange rate in the dollar? If you are a pharmacist and you buy drugs for 10 kobo and you want to replace them, it has increased to 50 kobo. Are you supposed to lose in your transactions or gain? How are you expected to feed your family and pay your bills?
“The cost of importation has increased because of the increase in the exchange rate. These are the indices; you don’t even need so much from the President.
“If the price of the dollar is still high, if the price of diesel is high, if the roads are bad, if there are no credit facilities for the manufacturers, and if Federal Government institutions owe pharmaceutical companies, don’t expect drugs to come down.
“The government said they wanted to do local production, but they are not making credit facilities available. If you want to carry out local production, you must do what is needed to achieve it.”
On his part, Sani urged the Tinubu-led government to address the economic situation of the country before it would get out of control.
He lamented that most of their members were directly affected by the situation due to the reduction in patronage.
He said, “To be frank, we are really in soup. Our job is to repair cars, but most car owners have parked their vehicles due to exorbitant increases in fuel pump prices. We are directly affected. Most of our members go to workshops and sit down with nothing to do.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to look into the issues and resolve them before they get out of control.”
