By Franklin Alli

Swiss Pharma Nigeria Ltd and May and Baker Nigeria Plc  say the  credit facilities they secured from the Bank of Industry (BoI) have boosted their operational performances in terms of  expansion of their production facilities and  upgrading of quality control systems to the international standards.

The two drug firms recently obtained the current Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliance certification from the World Health Organisation, WHO, to produce and export their products to other countries.

Colin Cummings , the chairman/chief executive of Swipha,  noted that as a result of the bank’s intervention fund  , the company  has been developing  new products around the Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 6 of the government to combat malaria, maternal health challenges, diarrhea and bacterial infections.

“Bank of Industry has been crucial to us moving ahead and without their support we wouldn’t have managed to get to where we are so quickly and also we need their assistance in getting to the next stage

which is the pre-qualification of specific products,” he said.

Similarly, Nnamdi Okafor, the managing director/chief executive of May and Baker disclosed that by June 2015 the company would have had its Anti-retroviral drug certified, having upgraded their facility to WHO standards with an expanded capacity, that has enabled the creation of additional 500 jobs and about 1000 indirect jobs with BoI’s support.

He disclosed that Nigeria imports over 90 per cent of inputs in the pharmaceutical industry and urged the government to revamp the petrochemical industry so that the cost of local production can be

drastically reduced.

According to Rasheed Olaoluwa, the Managing Director of BoI, who visited both companies’ corporate headquarters in Lagos, said he was pleased that the companies had made good use of the support of the bank to upgrade their facilities and obtain the WHO cGMP certification.

He pointed out that the pharmaceutical sector was one that the government would continue to support to flourish under the industrial revolution policy and also to ensure sustainable quality healthcare provision for its citizens.

Olaoluwa said that the bank was pushing the federal government’s development objective of local production as against dependence on imports, in order to conserve the nation’s foreign reserve, which was subjected to undue pressure as a result of the volume of imports.

“I must say that Swipha is the first company not only in Nigeria but in West Africa to be so certified so it is a great achievement and we are very proud in BoI that we have been instrumental to this feat. The next stage is to now go to product specific certification and we are also in discussion with them to ensure that they achieve that as well,” he said.