By Hakeem Oshiyemi

“Building the wealth of a nation starts with the health of the nation”

The recent financial turnaround of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc, as reported by Vanguard on Friday, 13th of February 2026, is more than a corporate success story. It is a strong signal that Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector is responding positively to the targeted reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

According to the newspaper report, the Managing Director of Neimeth, Mr Valentine Okelu, made the revelation at a media parley in Lagos, acknowledging that the Federal Government’s tax waiver on critical pharmaceutical raw materials has significantly reduced production costs and accelerated organisational growth. This policy, which provides a two-year exemption from import duties and Value Added Tax on select pharmaceutical inputs from March 2025 to March 2027, is already proving to be one of the most strategic interventions in Nigeria’s health industrial policy space in recent years.

The significance of this is clear: when government policy is intentional, targeted, and aligned with national priorities, local manufacturers respond with growth, stability, and expansion.
A Policy That Delivers Measurable Outcomes
Neimeth’s 2025 performance provides compelling evidence of what becomes possible when local manufacturers are supported with smart, industry-specific interventions.

The company reported revenue growth of 64 per cent, rising from ₦4.49 billion in 2024 to ₦7.37 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. Operating profit surged to ₦2.7 billion, compared to ₦18.9 million in 2024. Profit before tax improved dramatically from a loss of ₦854.5 million in 2024 to ₦1.48 billion positive, while net profit shifted from a loss of ₦885.3 million to a positive ₦982 million.

These numbers are not just impressive; they are instructive. They demonstrate that Nigeria’s pharmaceutical manufacturers, under the umbrella of PMG-MAN, are not asking for charity. They are asking for a policy environment that enables the viability of local production and encourages investment. When the environment improves, the results follow.

Why Local Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Must Be Treated as a Strategic National Asset
Pharmaceutical manufacturing is not like the production of general consumer goods. It is directly tied to national health security, economic development, and sovereign capacity.

Mr Okelu rightly noted that the sector requires “patient capital” and sustained policy attention. This is because pharmaceutical investments have long development cycles, strict quality requirements, stringent regulatory demands, and high upfront capital costs.

The Renewed Hope Agenda’s targeted duty and VAT waivers represent an important shift in mindset: that pharmaceutical manufacturing should be treated as a strategic national priority, not merely a commercial activity.
This approach must not only be sustained, but also expanded.
Nigeria’s Dependence on Imported Medicines Remains a National Vulnerability
Despite Nigeria’s market size and population growth, the country still imports the majority of its medicinal needs. Across Africa, the continent imports over 70 per cent of medicines consumed, with almost non-existent capacity for vaccines, biologics, and other advanced therapeutic platforms, including modern dosage forms and delivery systems. This dependence is not merely an economic issue; it is a security risk.
When supply chains are disrupted, when foreign exchangee becomes uIn times of instability or when global demand spikes during pandemics, countries without manufacturing capacity are left vulnerable. The COVID-19 pandemic taught the world a harsh lesson: in a crisis, every nation prioritises itself. Nations without production capacity are forced to wait, beg, or pay premium prices. Nigeria cannot afford this reality, especially not with a population projected to reach 260 million by 2030 and approach 400 million by 2050.
A Weak Supply Chain System Makes Nigeria a Target for Fake and Substandard Medicines
Nigeria’s pharmaceutical vulnerability is most dangerously exposed by the scourge of fake and substandard medicines, a crisis that has fuelled deep fear and mistrust in our healthcare system.
With chaotic supply chain systems, weak surveillance, and persistent gaps in enforcement, Nigeria has become a target for organised criminal networks. These networks profit from citizens’ loss of public confidence in healthcare systems.
This menace not only harms patients but also destroys legitimate businesses, discourages investment, and weakens national resilience.
The truth is uncomfortable, but it must be said plainly: the children of darkness are well organised. If Nigeria is to defeat fake medicines, we must be even more strategic, more organised, and more determined and intentional about victory.

The Next Step: Strategic Interventions Beyond Tax Waivers
The duty and VAT waiver is a strong foundation, but it must be part of a broader industrial-health strategy.
Nigeria needs a pharmaceutical sector that contributes meaningfully to GDP, creates high-skilled and high-paying jobs, strengthens health security, and positions the country as Africa’s hub for pharmaceutical development, manufacturing and supply.
To achieve this, additional strategic interventions are required, including expanding the raw materials list to capture omitted critical inputs as industry leaders have requested, facilitating local production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and critical excipients, improving access to long-term financing at competitive rates, strengthening regulatory systems to ensure quality and boost investor confidence, supporting research and development to help the industry move from generics to innovation, facilitating development of local skills and technical capabilities, building infrastructure that reduces manufacturing cost burdens, and creating export-driven incentives that align with AfCFTA and global opportunities.
Importantly, Nigeria has already seen what is possible when key stakeholders collaborate around quality and international standards. In 2011, NAFDAC under the leadership of then Director-General, Dr Paul Orhii, PMG-MAN under the chairmanship of Chief Bunmi Olaopa, the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, and other stakeholders made a deliberate effort to change the narrative by engaging the World Health Organisation (WHO). The goal was to support Nigerian manufacturers to meet WHO Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards and ultimately achieve WHO prequalification for essential medicines.
That collaboration produced encouraging results. In September 2014, I sat proudly as a Nigerian pharmaceutical consultant among a global assembly of pharmaceutical manufacturers in Copenhagen, Denmark, as WHO announced that four Nigerian manufacturers, namely Swiss Pharma, Evans Medical, Chi Pharmaceuticals, and May & Baker, had attained WHO GMP standards, with their Public Inspection Reports published on the WHO website. Even more encouraging was that no fewer than 25 other Nigerian companies were actively working to join that train of progress.
With that momentum, Nigeria was close to achieving the critical mass needed to normalise international standards, remove the damaging “substandard” stigma, checkmate counterfeiters, and catalyse pharmaceutical growth across Africa. Nigeria gained so much respect internationally that it became a case study for other nations, and WHO even created an alternative prequalification pathway to support the Nigerian effort.
However, it was clear from WHO’s message that government support was essential. The WHO Head of Inspections who engaged Nigerian manufacturers was highly complimentary of their potential, but he urged Nigerian authorities to back those companies with enabling local policies and regional diplomacy so their investments could yield returns and inspire others. Government officials present nodded and promised to take the recommendations back to Abuja.
Unfortunately, the follow-through never came. The industry grew weary of waiting, confidence dwindled, trust eroded, and momentum was lost. Predictably, counterfeiters exploited the vacuum, peddling fake and substandard poisons for profit, while Nigerians paid the price in lives and lost trust.
Today, there are renewed signs that confidence is returning. The body language of this administration and the direction of the Renewed Hope Agenda suggest a stronger commitment to quality and competitiveness. Swiss Pharma has again led the way, achieving WHO prequalification for two antimalarial products, both during the current administration. A few other local manufacturers are not far behind. With a coordinated, consistent, and strategic approach, Nigeria can rebuild momentum and make pharmaceutical growth truly unstoppable.
Nigeria Can Become Africa’s Pharmaceutical Powerhouse—But We Must Be Intentional
Nigeria has a large and expanding market, a dynamic private sector, and a growing pool of educated, entrepreneurial young people. Together, these strengths position the country to emerge as Africa’s hub for pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, and supply.
But this will not happen by accident.
We must change the lens through which we see global pharmaceutical value chains. We must be intentional and aggressive about our industrial ambition. We must move from importation to self-sufficiency and exports. We must move from generics to innovation. We must incentivise local manufacturers and encourage investors. We must empower young people with the skills, platforms, and capital to drive the next generation of pharmaceutical growth.
And we must defeat the scourge of fake and substandard medicines, completely and decisively.
A Renewed Hope Worth Building Together
What is exciting about the Renewed Hope Agenda is that it signals a government that understands the strategic value of health manufacturing and is taking concrete steps to support it. Neimeth’s performance is a clear example of what becomes possible when policies are aligned with national development goals.
But this has to be the beginning.
If Nigeria sustains these reforms, expands them, and mobilises all stakeholders, government, regulators, manufacturers, investors, academia, and civil society, then the dream of a strong pharmaceutical industry can become a national reality.
Nigeria can secure its medicines. Nigeria can create jobs. Nigeria can build export capacity. Nigeria can protect its citizens. Nigeria can become a pharmaceutical economic powerhouse. All hands must be on deck.

Hakeem Oshiyemi, MSc (Eng), MRSB, is a pharmaceutical consultant and EU/UK Qualified Person with over 25 years’ experience in pharmaceutical quality systems, GMP, regulatory compliance, and supply chain quality.