Nigeria's pharmaceutical sector hemorrhaged approximately 9,000 pharmacists in the four-and-a-half years preceding December 2025, with more than 850 professionals emigrating in the first half of 2026 alone after obtaining letters of good standing from the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria. The exodus, primarily to Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, has intensified calls for establishing a National Postgraduate College of Pharmacy to address critical workforce shortages in manufacturing, clinical pharmacy, community pharmacy, and public health pharmacy.
Pharm. Ezeh Ambrose Igwekamma, National Chairman of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, or ACPN, stressed the urgency during the organization's 45th Annual National Scientific Conference in Abuja recently. He warned that Nigeria's pharmaceutical sector would continue facing shortages of specialist pharmacists across hospital, clinical, manufacturing, community, public health, and pharmaceutical administration if urgent steps weren't taken.
The Subsidy Burden
Currently, only the West Africa Postgraduate College of Pharmacists handles postgraduate pharmacy training at the sub-regional level. Igwekamma revealed that most countries, including Ghana, abandoned the WAPCP for their home colleges. Nigeria now funds over 95 per cent of the subsidy gap to nurture the sub-regional college in foreign exchange. This arrangement drains resources while failing to meet domestic training needs.
The crisis of inadequately trained pharmacists has been compounded by the mass departure of professionals seeking better opportunities abroad. Data from the PSN National Secretariat confirms the scale of the exodus, with destinations including Canada, the UK, Australia, and to a lesser extent, the USA and some Asian territories. The not-too-impressive reward system ranks among the glaring challenges driving professionals away.
Structural Deficiencies
Igwekamma described pharmacy as a profession that has historically occupied a central place in healthcare, but its fortunes have declined significantly in Nigeria despite its critical contribution to patient care. The poor drug distribution system remains a fundamental problem. National Drug Distribution Guidelines enacted 11 years ago are yet to be fully enforced, resulting in undefined public drug procurement policies.
ACPN called on governments at all levels to confront structural deficiencies affecting pharmacy practice and national drug control. The pharmacy workforce development plan must be improved to raise a pool of skilled and productive pharma experts for the next level of the great nation they seek to build, Igwekamma said.
Reform Package
The association urged the federal government to undertake sweeping reforms in the pharmaceutical sector. These include 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.
Igwekamma 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, and create a National Postgraduate College of Pharmacy to train specialist pharmacists locally. He suggested that the federal government set up a Presidential Committee on the pharmaceutical sector to push the agenda of these bills and streamline other specific challenges of the pharma sector.
On counterfeit medicines and drug abuse, he said the existing sanctions were too weak to deter offenders and were discouraging investors in the pharmaceutical industry. The activities of charlatans weren't encouraging pharma investors because of the extremely feeble sanction culture the Fake Drug Act offers. ACPN calls for 20 years' imprisonment for first offenders and life imprisonment, as well as outright forfeiture of all known assets, for subsequent offenders.
Procurement and Distribution
The association 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. The National Council on Health resolved about 2 years ago that all public procurement of medicines should be undertaken through the Drug Revolving Fund, requiring clearer legislative backing.
Establishing a dedicated Drug Management Agency would remove ambiguities surrounding medicine procurement, streamline nationwide distribution through a centralised system, and strengthen regulatory oversight, Igwekamma argued.
Substance Abuse Crisis
ACPN cited the 2018 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime national survey, which revealed extensive abuse of psychoactive substances across Nigeria based on 2017 findings. 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. ACPN attributed the persistence of substance abuse to dysfunctional family environments, youth unemployment, poverty, peer influence, inadequate public awareness, and ignorance of the harmful consequences of drug misuse.
Why This Matters:
The pharmaceutical sector's workforce crisis represents a fundamental threat to Nigeria's healthcare infrastructure and economic development. With nearly 10,000 trained professionals departing in less than five years, the nation faces critical shortages in specialized areas that can't be quickly replaced. Nigeria's continued subsidization of a sub-regional training institution while losing its own specialists to emigration reflects misaligned priorities that drain resources without delivering domestic benefits. The weak enforcement of drug distribution guidelines enacted 11 years ago and inadequate penalties for counterfeit medicine traffickers create an environment that discourages legitimate pharmaceutical investment while enabling criminal enterprises. Without institutional reforms—including a national postgraduate college, stronger legal deterrents, and centralized procurement systems—Nigeria risks losing its capacity to train specialists, regulate medicine quality, and attract private capital to its pharmaceutical sector. The substance abuse epidemic affecting more than 21 million Nigerians underscores the urgent need for a functional, well-staffed pharmaceutical system capable of addressing public health crises through proper regulation and professional oversight.