The federal government has approved the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to ratify the African Medicines Agency (AMA) treaty.
During a briefing with State House correspondents, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, shared that the approval was granted at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held on Tuesday.
Minister Pate explained that the African Union Heads of State and Government introduced the treaty at their 32nd meeting in Addis Ababa in February 2019. To date, 37 African Union member states have signed the treaty, and 26 have ratified it.
The FEC has now directed Nigeria to ratify the treaty and take all necessary actions to implement it.
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The treaty aims to enhance the regulatory capacities of participating countries regarding medical products, increasing access to safe and quality medical services.
It also seeks to establish common standards across the continent, creating a Pan-African regulatory framework.
This, Pate noted, would expand markets for products manufactured within Africa, benefiting both Nigeria and other African nations through mutual trade.
In addition to the treaty approval, the FEC also approved six contracts for major diagnostic equipment, including three Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines and two CT scan machines.
These will be installed at various institutions, including the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital in Akwa Ibom, the Federal Medical Centre in Abeokuta, and several other universities and medical centers across Nigeria.
Pate emphasized that Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure is gradually improving, particularly at teaching hospitals, and noted that people from across Africa, as well as from places like the United Kingdom and the United States, are now coming to Nigeria for high-quality healthcare.
He expressed confidence that the transformation in Nigeria’s healthcare system, as promised by the president, is underway and that continued investments in the sector are essential for sustaining this progress.
