The National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) says Nigeria needs to develop a more proactive way of addressing African problems with African solutions.
The Director General of NIPRD Dr. Obi Adigwe stated this in an exclusive interview with Health TV news crew noting that research is everybody’s responsibility, hence the need for serious investment in the Research and Development (R&D) sector.
He said, a situation where the country sits down and wait for world bodies to hand down solutions to us speaks to our abilities to believe in our capacity.
He said “this is one of the reasons why NIPRD has put together a conference coming up in September 2021, which will address solution making in Africa thereby reducing our dependency in the West and increase our Medicine security in Africa”.
Dr. Adigwe who spoke on government’s performance in handling the covid 19 pandemic, and Research and Development said government has done a decent job, but more can be done in terms of piroritization and increasing funding subventions.
He also said another area where there is significant weakness is the participation of other critical stakeholders and philanthropist in investing in Research and Development as he says their impact has not been felt.
He said “These has basically presented a non-engagement position despite the many calls that have gone out from NIPRD and other offices across the landscape which is really disheartening”
“It appears that in this part of the world, people sit back and just wait for government to do everything and that is not the gold standard”
“In the UK you have many individuals and Non-Governmental Agencies, some of them not even related to health care who fund Research and Development”
Dr Adigwe said the NIPRD conference will avail Nigeria the opportunity to rejig its approach to solution making in Africa.
While he called on government to increase funding subventions, he also called on well meaning Nigerians, ranging from musicians, actors, Non-Governmental agencies in Nigeria, philanthropist and others to invest in the sector so that the country can enjoy local solutions instead of relying on the western world for solutions.
