The Registrar of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, Pharm Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, announced on Friday in Kano that all patent medicine dealers—particularly those operating in the Sabon Gari drugs open market—must relocate to the new Coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC) on Zaria Road within two weeks. Speaking to journalists, the registrar explained that this move is intended to enforce regulatory standards rigorously in the distribution and sale of medicines.
The Kano CWC, which will be managed by Kanawa Pharmaceutical Partners Limited, has been inspected and approved by the PCN since 2017. However, the registrar lamented that Nigeria’s chaotic drug‑distribution system, including in Kano, undermines the quality, safety, and efficacy of medicines and fuels drug abuse and misuse. He noted that open drug markets across the country suffer from poor storage conditions—exposing medicines to high temperatures and humidity—and from the sale of ethical products without pharmacist supervision, putting the public at risk of improper drug use.
Furthermore, the registrar highlighted that most medicine shops in open drug markets operate illegally without registration, contributing to social and security problems through the illicit sale of substances of abuse. With the inauguration of the CWC in Kano, he warned that the sale of medicines in the Sabon Gari market and other clustered plazas throughout Kano State will no longer be tolerated. Medicine dealers are urged to relocate to the CWC for their own benefit; failure to comply will result in the PCN’s enforcement department shutting down all shops operating in open drug markets nationwide.
Comments are closed for this story.