Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), has called on Nigerians to embrace locally developed herbal medicines and reduce dependence on imported alternatives, as the institution steps up efforts to promote home-grown pharmaceutical products.
The Deputy Director of AB Pharmaceutical Services, Oluwatoyin Afolabi, described Nigeria’s reliance on foreign herbal products despite its indigenous medicinal resources and growing research capacity as a form of economic and medical dependence that requires urgent attention.
Afolabi spoke in Ado Ekiti on Saturday during a two-day AB Pharmaceuticals Business Summit organised by ABUAD in collaboration with pharmaceutical marketers.
At the summit, the university showcased three of its pharmaceutical products — AB Mal, ABUAD Virucidine and AB Health Animation 250mg — as part of efforts to expand their reach across Nigeria.
Afolabi said the initiative was driven by the vision of ABUAD founder, Aare Afe Babalola, to enable Nigerians to meet more of their healthcare needs through medicines developed and produced locally.
“The ultimate reason we are here today is to establish a marketing plan that will help us take these products to the Nigerian people. We have served the Indians enough, and we have served the Chinese enough. We have embraced different forms of multilevel marketing and imported their traditional medicines, while Nigerians continue to work hard to promote these foreign products.
“It is time for a revolution, and a revolution does not necessarily require a crowd. Sometimes, it takes one determined individual to change the world. We have seen people change the course of history,” she said.
Afolabi said Babalola developed the university’s pharmaceutical products as part of his vision for Nigeria to increasingly meet its healthcare needs with locally produced medicines.
She noted that Nigerians had historically relied on traditional remedies derived from local resources but had yet to demonstrate the same level of enthusiasm for home-grown products as they did for imported alternatives.
“Before the advent of orthodox doctors, our people relied on traditional medicines, including those derived from local resources, and these medicines served them.
“However, we have yet to embrace our own products with the same enthusiasm with which we promote Chinese medicines and other foreign alternatives.
“That is why we are here today — to establish a business relationship with the Association of Pharmaceutical Products Marketers of Nigeria and other stakeholders that will help promote ABUAD pharmaceutical products and change the mindset of Nigerians,” she said.
Afolabi urged Nigerians to support locally developed medicines, arguing that the volume of pharmaceutical products imported into the country placed a significant burden on the economy.
“We want our people to stop depending excessively on Chinese and Indian medicines when we have the capacity to develop and promote our own products.
“If you know the volume of imported medicines entering Nigeria every day, you will be amazed. A significant amount of our economic resources goes into purchasing foreign products. We must begin to reverse this trend by investing in, producing and marketing medicines developed in Nigeria,” she added.
The ABUAD Vice-Chancellor, Professor Smaranda Olarinde, also stressed the need to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imported pharmaceutical products.
Olarinde called for an ecosystem in which universities, industries, regulators, healthcare professionals, investors and consumers would collaborate to move promising innovations from the laboratory to the marketplace.
The Chairman of the Association of Pharmaceutical Products Marketers of Nigeria in Ekiti State, Peter Ajayi, praised Babalola’s vision and pledged the association’s support for efforts to make the products accessible to prospective consumers.
The university said the initiative was aimed at strengthening the marketing and distribution of its pharmaceutical products while encouraging greater acceptance of locally developed medicines in Nigeria.