Emzor restates commitment to strengthening Africa’s health resilience as experts, thought leaders advocate stronger regional integration
Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, a leading name in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector, has restated its long-term commitment to the development and growth of the local pharmaceutical sector with a view to strengthening health resilience on the African continent. Mindful of the enormous challenges on the continent key among which are dearth of infrastructure, low industrialisation, and lack of access to high-quality, affordable and accessible healthcare especially drugs, Emzor promised to continue to prioritise Africa as a strategic market by upscaling the development and local production of high-quality drugs and other medical essentials of international standard that address the healthcare needs of the people.
The Executive Director at Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Pharm (Mrs.) Uzoma Ezeoke, stated this in a presentation and as a panel discussant at a sub–regional event tagged, “ECOWAS @50 with the theme, “Regional Integration: Gateway to Peace and Security, Trade and Investment in the ECOWAS Sub-Region, Achievements, Challenges, Solutions and Opportunities.”Organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), the two-day summit held at Fajemirokun Hall, Commerce House, Idowu Taylor Street, Victoria Island, Lagos from April 28-29, 2025, drew eminent policymakers, ECOWAS chiefs, thought leaders and development experts from across West Africa sub-region.
Pharm Ezeoke in her presentation titled, “Local Manufacturing Equals Medicine Security,” highlighted Emzor’s strategic interventions in ensuring medicine self-sufficiency and capacity building on the continent to include local manufacture of over 160 products across five factory sites, a strong workforce of over 2,000 employees, and a network of distributors. She noted that Emzor’s Sagamu plants were designed to world-class standards while its high-quality products reach between 23 to 27 African countries with direct export to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
This is in addition to the domestic presence in every Nigerian state with 250 plus distributor relationships. She enthused that the building of the groundbreaking Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) plant in Sagamu, Ogun State, underscored Emzor’s innovation and forward-looking solutions to solving Africa’s drug sufficiency challenge especially to stem the high rate of maternal and infant mortality on the continent as a result of the prevalence of malaria caused by bites from infected mosquitoes.
The APIs facility, she disclosed, will ramp up the production of high-quality antimalarials and many other WHO-recommended priority drugs. She said further that the setting up of API plant will significantly reduce drugs’ import — a major channel for the inflow of substandard, falsified, and fake drugs into Africa, reduce foreign exchange dependency, boost local capacity, improve access to quality healthcare for more people, and bolster Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth on the continent. Pharm Ezeoke noted that Emzor was prime on product innovation and quality, thereby strategically addressing identified market failures and gaps within the healthcare system.
According to her, some of these gaps include research, development and local production of high-quality drugs of international standard that address maternal and child health challenges.“We’ve created innovations like dispersible tablets for children’s medication. We are developing Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for malnutrition locally through our backward integration project initiated with USAID by working with local farmers. Also, we have created solutions for postpartum bleeding – a leading cause of maternal mortality,” she stated.
As a contributor in a panel interaction session titled, “Health is Wealth: Strengthening Sub-Regional Health Resilience,” Mrs. Ezeoke said despite the stringent regulatory environments for pharmaceutical companies in both the English and French-speaking West African countries, Emzor was poised to play a pivotal frontier role in bolstering the sub-region’s health resilience.
“At Emzor, we are preparing for the future of Africa, including deepening our pathways in the English and French-speaking West African countries. Cultural differences exist across regions, even in mundane aspects like capital perspective. So understanding diverse cultures is important for business in multinational contexts,” she said assuredly. Pharm Ezeoke affirmed the Federal Government’s demonstration of commitment to elevating manufacturing quality and regulatory framework, stressing that Nigeria has the highest number of pharmaceutical manufacturers on the continent.
On the implementation of the presidential executive order issued over a year ago to remove the 7.5% value added tax (VAT) and customs duties on pharmaceutical raw materials, Nigeria is among few countries still paying import duties for pharmaceutical active ingredients.President and Chairman of Council of LCCI, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa, speaking on “Regional Integration as Economic Pillar,” emphasised that regional integration was crucial for West Africa’s economic progress, while highlighting LCCI’s role in promoting trade, investment, and security as foundational for peace.
He noted that the political instability and security challenges in some parts of West Africa, including past civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone affect growth, just as he said security issues in Nigeria and other countries in the sub-region showed that a peaceful environment was pivotal for economic development. Mr. Idahosa advocated that regional peacekeeping should remain a priority to address these challenges, even as he disclosed that although intra-regional trade in ECOWAS grew from $4.5bn in 1979, to $17.6bn in 2023); however, it only constituted 12% of total trade, contrasting with 60% in other regions. “AfCFTA presents a chance to increase intra-African trade by over 50% by 2030.
Initiatives like the ECOWAS currency could streamline trade,” he concluded. President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), Dr. George Agyekum Donkor, in a keynote speech, disclosed that the strategic role of the sub-regional bank includes prioritising financing regional infrastructure such as transportation, energy, and ICT; supporting West African Power Pool for energy connectivity; promoting industrialisation & MSMEs support for financial inclusion; as well as public-private partnerships to derisk investments.The keynote delivered by the Vice President of EBID, Dr. Olagunju Ashimolowo, revealed that over 300 projects have been financed, totaling $2.5bn.
“Notable projects include rural electrification and renewable energy, enhancing food security and job creation. In Nigeria, 19 projects totaling $410m with 94% directed toward the private sector, were financed,” he disclosed. The two-day event focused on the role of various sectors in fostering regional integration, including women as key players in driving sustainable development, regional integration through building peace and security, STEM, agriculture, and youth empowerment, amongst others.
