The National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development has applied for 5,000 hectares of land to grow medicinal plants, roots and leaves that are local to the environment of Kwara.
Ibrahim Yahya Oloriegbe, senate committee chairman on health, disclosed this to newsmen during a training conference for phytomedicine practitioners, tagged, ‘Developing Nigeria’s phytomedicine for Healthy Population and Assured Economic Prosperity’.
He says it was aimed at helping the country in its research and quest to develop phytomedicines and vaccine to fight against diseases and COVID-19.
According to him, the benefit of such move will not only be useful to Kwara State but to other NIPRD state offices in a bid to develop qualitative and economic phytomedicines in the country to fight against diseases.
Oloriegbe who is representing Kwara Central in the Senate explained that the objective of the phytomedicine training conference in Kwara State was to ensure the safety and healthiness of Nigerians who patronizes locally produced medicines.
He says: “It’s our duty as policy makers to ensure that the medicines are of quality, see to how we can empower our local medicine practitioners and ensure they use what are of quality to produce their medicines”.
Oloriegbe declared that producing medicines locally would help to save the country’s foreign exchange. “You can see that when the COVID-19 rages on we were moved to import drug from Madagascar. What they used for the drug is anthemisia and Nigeria has better anthemisia”, he said.
He posits that if the country encourages and develops its local medicine it would not only empower phytomedicine practitioners but boost the nation’s resources.
The senator, raised alarm over the way people coming into the country are granted entry without being made to follow COVID-19 protocols at the various entry points, saying “the senate would have to step in to ensure due process are followed when people are coming into the country from any of the entry points.”
Also speaking at the training conference, Obi Adigwe, director general NIPRD, said phytomedicine was a good source of medicine that can help to improve people’s access to health and social economic development of the country.
“Over the years the phytomedicine potentials of the country has been neglected. Countries like China and India in Asia are making billions of dollars from phytomedicines.
“It’s rather ironical that the quality of phytomedicine ingredients in Nigeria and other African countries are of better qualities than those of these countries”, he said.
