‘Businesses suffocating on account of unfavourable government policies’

Azubuike Chimere-eze Anyatonwu is the managing director of Libracin Natural Medicine Industries Limited, situated in Aba, Abia State. In this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, Deputy Editor, he spoke on the technology that has been brought to bear on herbal medicine in the country; the place of herbal medicine in the overall health of mankind; the authenticity of his product and the need for government to make operating environment conducive for business. Excerpts:

May we know about your business?
We are into natural medicine; I can call it phyto-medicine. It is pure indigenous.

In this part of the world, when you talk about natural medicine people think it is inferior to orthodox medicine; what would you say to those with this notion?
Well, that’s the mental picture of our people. But herbal medicine has been with us; we are into it; we were born into it. Even those who have that notion, they are herbalists themselves; everybody is a herbalist. There is no family that has not eaten natural food. If you don’t eat bitter cola, you eat fluted-pumpkin, which we call ugu in Igbo land. If you don’t eat it, you must have taken one vegetable or the other. You may have taken something like carrots. These are what we call herbal medicines (in their natural form). They have chemical compositions. They have phyto-chemicals that contain active ingredients that make them effective. Herbal medicine is not fetish; it is not inferior. After all, our fathers lived on it and they lived long, even longer than people do today. The mental picture of our people about herbal medicine is unfortunate and it is a pity. People just simply refuse to recognise the work of nature.

We understand that you have taken the business to another level with the commissioning of an ultra-modern office where you employ technology to refine roots and put them in tablet forms and also package some in tea form. May we know more about that?

Yes, we have gone technological in the business in line with the 21st Century world. In the past, people used to cut some roots, put them inside bottles and pour ethanol which we commonly called “kaikai”, and drink it without any defined dosage. Today, pharmacology has helped to define all these. Why do we go to the university to study about plant resources management, agronomy and others to understand the use of forest resources, Biochemistry, Microbiology? We study about all these plants and their chemical compositions, and the way they can be beneficial to mankind. Unlike when they used to take roots mixed with ‘kaikai’ without defining the dosage, it is no longer the same today. In this 21st Century, if anybody is saying that herbal medicine does not have any dosage; such a person is taking us backwards. Technology and pharmacology have helped the realm. Now, we can define the use of medicinal plant; we can define the active ingredients, and know where, in one way or the other, it can be beneficial to cure an ailment. So, somebody will not come in this century to fabricate lies about herbal medicine; and I don’t know where such person is coming from.

How did you start the business?
Of a truth, it is a family heritage. In those days my father was an herbalist; he was also a dispenser in a hospital; so we got the knowledge from him. And I have found out that this is a very good business that you can create wealth by developing the herbal medicine after I have been informed through education. Having discovered that I could develop the business and create wealth from it, I decided to move into it. I have known more about the use of medicinal plants through learning, coupled with the ones we know already in the family.

You’ve been to China to import some technology. Tell us the story?
Those who studied history would tell us that China, Thailand, India have been old in the system in their own way of developing their own herbal medicine. Of course, you have to learn from those who have been successful to get more information, more knowledge and exposure. That’s why I went to China for training, to modernize and innovate about medicine and how to use it; to see how it can be of great benefit to my own country too. We imported the technology to detect toxic materials; make the process of production faster and it confers a measure of legitimacy on what we are doing. Today, we can define the dosage and neatly package the products to make them more attractive and competitive.

Where does your business stand before NAFDAC?
You can’t manufacture food or drug without passing through NAFDAC. NAFDAC has certified our factory, and has also certified our products good for consumption. That is why they were able to register it. If you want to know more, log on to NAFDAC green page and enter the name of our company; you will see that our products are registered with NAFDAC. We are also recognised by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

Who are your major customers?
In marketing, you’ve got to have your target group. Our major target is every Nigerian. We want Nigerians to de-emphasise the use of chemicals in the name of drugs. Our target is to touch the lives of people. So, to that end, we produce quality herbal medicine that can help our people to live long. When you are healthy, the ability to contribute to the wellbeing of the country is there. If you are healthy, you become a healthy leader, a healthy administrator. That’s our target, to see that people enjoy good health. Nobody can do without food; what we are telling people is that herbal medicine is food, it is not drug. Your food should be your medicine because you can’t be different from your food. The whole of your body is composed of the food you eat; if you eat wrongly, you have wrong health. So, herbal medicine is food not drug. That’s our message.

How do people identify quacks in the business?
In every sector, in every field, there is quack. In orthodox medicine, among doctors, there are quacks. That there are quacks does not mean there are no genuine ones. To identify the quacks, the Federal Government has a body, an agency that does this- NAFDAC. If your product is in the market and it is not yet registered, and you are selling it, it is a fake product. The question is; who is an ‘herbalist?’ It is anyone who knows how to use vegetable to cure an ailment and nothing more; so when you are doing something different from that, it is a different thing altogether, they call it witch-doctor or witchcraft which is another study, that is not our field and we are not into that. We are into herbal medicine.

Where do you expect Libracine Limited to be in the next five years?
We want our company to expand to all the African countries first, because we are Africans and we are proud of our products. Then we shall target other continents for them to know what the black man has. You must know that all men are the same all over the world. What differentiates us is our attitude.

Some people say that Nigerian environment is not favourable for businesses to survive. What is your take on it?
Really my dear it has been very challenging. Running business in this part of the world is very challenging. There’s no power (electricity); we are constantly on generator and it makes the cost of product high. It is not good for our people. We pray that government could reflect on this and create an enabling environment for people to operate. This problem of power is a serious one that affects everything and no country that has our kind of system amounts to anything. Again, not only power, we must encourage agriculture, particularly now that oil prices have fallen. Nigeria can achieve a lot from agriculture. Because of long years of neglect, we have some useful plants that are diminishing; they are almost becoming endangered species. If agriculture is encouraged here, we can get a lot of raw materials that can help to produce some of the things needed in the country. As these essential plants are diminishing, our health is also diminishing. We want government to make right policies that would promote development in the country, encourage manufacturing and survival of industries. We urgently need good power policy, agricultural policy, and encourage the Bank of Industry (BoI) to play its role. The BoI is just existing for nothing, without positively impacting on small scale industries. They are helping nobody; I have experienced it. Their demand for collateral is so high that no small scale business can cope with. When right policies are made and businesses boom, crime rate will reduce because more people would now be employed- they would go to work by 8am and close by 5pm- there would be no time to commit crime. Let government do the right thing and crime will drastically reduce in society.

ZEBULON AGOMUO