Nigeria has introduced several initiatives to strengthen domestic pharmaceutical production, including fiscal incentives, regulatory reforms, financing mechanisms, and procurement initiatives. The Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC), launched in October 2023, aims to raise local production of healthcare products to 70 percent by 2030. This move is driven by the need to reduce dependence on imported medicines, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and sophisticated medical equipment, which exposes the nation to foreign-exchange pressures and global supply disruptions.
Despite these efforts, Nigeria's import figures for pharmaceutical products tell a less encouraging story. According to UN Comtrade data compiled by the World Bank, Nigeria imported pharmaceutical products worth $767.4 million in 2023. The figure fell to $653.5 million in 2024 but rose sharply to $766.2 million in 2025, almost exactly where it stood before the current healthcare manufacturing push gathered momentum. This rebound in imports suggests that Nigeria is still in the process of building capacity and achieving genuine import substitution.
The government has taken several important steps to support local production, including the introduction of zero tariffs and excise duties on pharmaceutical machinery and equipment, waivers for some raw materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients, and measures to accelerate regulatory approvals. A €50 million facility provided by the European Investment Bank and the Bank of Industry will support healthcare manufacturers, while the proposed Medipool Programme promises long-term public procurement. These initiatives aim to provide manufacturers with sufficient certainty to invest in factories, technology, and production capacity.
The impact of these incentives on the local production of healthcare products is beginning to show. The Federal Ministry of Health reports that local manufacturing now accounts for nearly half of healthcare products consumed in Nigeria. Additionally, registered pharmaceutical companies have increased from 180 in 2022 to more than 200 in 2025. Nigeria is also moving towards deeper pharmaceutical production, including plans for an active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing plant.
However, concerns remain about the effectiveness of these incentives in producing measurable public value. If tax exemptions, cheaper financing, procurement guarantees, and regulatory concessions merely make manufacturers comfortable without making medicines cheaper, better, or more available, then the policy has simply transferred benefits to producers. The real question is whether these privileges will create globally competitive Nigerian pharmaceutical companies, increase domestic production, reduce foreign-exchange exposure, and eventually lower medicine costs.
A major challenge in evaluating the success of PVAC is the lack of transparent and detailed data on local production and imports. The term "healthcare products" is broader than pharmaceuticals, making it difficult to compare the government's nearly 50-percent local-production claim directly with pharmaceutical import figures. Nigeria needs a transparent yearly scorecard showing exactly how much of medicines, APIs, vaccines, diagnostics, and medical devices are produced locally, imported, and what the 70-percent target yearly means in measurable terms.
The 2025 import figures provide an important warning, as pharmaceutical imports rebounded by 17 percent after declining in 2024. If domestic production is genuinely replacing imports, that substitution must eventually become visible in the trade data. Therefore, PVAC should be understood as a programme taking one step at a time, with the decisive step being ensuring that Nigerian-made medicines can compete on price, quality, reliability, and scale.
Key points
- Nigeria's import figures for pharmaceutical products rose sharply to $766.2 million in 2025.
- Local manufacturing accounts for nearly half of healthcare products consumed in Nigeria.
- The government has introduced several initiatives to support local production, including fiscal incentives and regulatory reforms.
