Senate To Halt Pharmaceutical Companies’ Exit From Nigeria Through Friendly Tax Regime

Senator Mohammed-Sani Musa, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, has promised that the upper legislative chamber will make the country’s tax regime more friendly for pharmaceutical companies to halt their exit from Nigeria.

The Senator spoke with newsmen in Abuja at a symposium organised by Project Pink Blue (PPB), an NGO, to commemorate the 2024 World Cancer Day

The Senator, who is one of the panelists to discuss the topic: “Economy, tax and cancer control: The exit of pharmaceutical companies from Nigeria,” stated that the Senate would make legislation on tax administration.

He said that the Senate would also see how it would conveniently give pharmaceutical companies the opportunity of bringing more benefits to Nigerians while the government takes little from them.

According to him, Nigeria’s economic indicators are challenging and inflation rate is high, but if the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu is pursued vigorously, Nigeria will overcome some of the challenges.

He, however, said that Nigerians must give impetus to the regulatory agencies, to be able to perform their functions and put the country on the right path.

Zainab-Shinkafi Bagudu, the wife of former Kebbi State governor, who was also among the panelists, stated that local manufacturing companies must be encouraged to stay back in the country.

She said that the government should make the environment more conducive for business, and with better government policy, stressing that if companies continued to exit the country, there would be an increase in cancer patients.

Bagudu said that early detection was the best solution to gradually end cancer in the country, and advocated for more awareness to the grassroots people about cancer challenges.

Dr Tunji Alausa, Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, stated that government was intervening in different ways to curb cancer epidemic in the country.

He said that cancer was a chronic disease that needed multi dimensional approaches to tackle with true management, adding that government was working on the prevention of the menace through education.

According to him, educating the citizens and taking precautionary measures to prevent the disease is the best solution to curb it.

He said that in October 2023, government was able to roll out the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine to be given to young adolescent to also prevent cancer epidemic.

Alausa, however, dismissed claims that pharmaceutical companies were leaving Nigeria because of difficulties of doing business in the country.

He said they were leaving because they refused to obey pharmaceutical laws of the country.

He said that the companies had refused to domesticate their production, one of the contents of Nigeria’s pharmaceutical law, hence the reason for their leaving.
The minister said that government was working towards building six new cancer care centres in each of the six geo-political zones of the country in the next few weeks.

He disclosed that substantial increase had been granted to the healthcare budget to supplement the initial budget that was allocated for the cancer centres.

“We are also upgrading our infrastructure and equipment in the hospital; we are investing in equipping the hospitals with more diagnosis equipment, x-ray and other machines; this will enhance the ability to diagnose cancer early and start treatment early.

“We also have the National Cancer Fund that is being managed in the ministry, to support people with cancer,” he said, adding that for better management of the fund, it had been moved to the National Institute for Cancer Research.

“The movement of this fund is to enhance treatment and to better manage the fund with the use of technology, so the government is very more responsive to its citizens,” Alausa said.

According to him, President Tinubu was passionate about making the health sector better for all Nigerian citizens.

Runcie Chidebe, the Executive Director, PPB, explained that what really brought about the subject of discussion for the symposium was the high cost of oncology medications that they came across in recent times.

According to Chidebe, many patients are now suffering because they can not afford pay for the medications, and this is a crucial issue everyone needs to show concern.

He said it was up to Nigerians, including the private sector, government and all stakeholders, to ask each other what could they do to make the cost affordable for cancer patients.

Chidebe said it was now time for government to begin to decentralise cancer control and not leave everything to Federal Government, adding that state governments too should also play their parts for cancer patients.