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Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has 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.
National Chairman, Ambrose Ezeh, at the opening of the ACPN’s 45th Annual National Scientific Conference in Abuja, warned that Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector was facing a critical workforce crisis, worsening drug abuse and weak regulatory structures that threaten patient safety and national development.
Ezeh 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.
He attributed the exodus to poor remuneration, inadequate career opportunities and the failure to fully implement the National Drug Distribution Guidelines introduced in 2015.
To reposition the profession, the ACPN 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.
The association proposed a 20-year jail term for first-time fake drug offenders, while repeat offenders should face life imprisonment and forfeiture of all identified assets.
According to Ezeh, stronger sanctions would boost investor confidence and support the development of a pharmaceutical industry valued at about $10 billion.
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He also urged the Federal Government to constitute a Presidential Committee on the pharmaceutical sector to drive legislative reforms and address longstanding challenges affecting medicine regulation, workforce development and drug distribution.
On the country’s growing drug abuse crisis, Ezeh described substance abuse as a major public health emergency, citing figures from the 2018 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) national survey, which estimated that more than 21 million Nigerians abuse various psychoactive substances, including cannabis, opioids, codeine-containing cough syrups, sedatives, cocaine and amphetamines.
He identified unemployment, poverty, dysfunctional family structures, peer pressure, poor awareness, and weak enforcement of drug laws, porous borders, corruption, poor prescription control and social media influence among the major drivers of substance abuse.
The ACPN urged the government to strengthen drug control policies, punish drug traffickers and illegal medicine vendors, improve border surveillance, establish and equip more rehabilitation centres, and provide adequate resources for enforcement agencies, including the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), PCN, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Police and the judiciary.
The association also called for stronger collaboration between government and professional bodies, including the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and ACPN, to intensify nationwide advocacy against drug abuse and safeguard public health.
Ezeh expressed optimism that closer collaboration between the government and pharmacy professionals would accelerate reforms capable of strengthening Nigeria’s healthcare system and pharmaceutical industry.
