•Approves Medipool for competitive pricing, supply of essential medicines nationwide  

•Awards N2.3bn contract for procurement of cardiac categorisation machine at Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) rose from its sixth meeting in 2025 on Monday evening with a move to make medical drugs affordable to Nigerians.

The meeting, the second within one week, presided by President Bola Tinubu, was held at Council Chambers, State House, Abuja.

Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, said the council meeting deliberated on the need to make drugs affordable to the citizenry. He said this informed the approval by FEC for the establishment of Medipool for competitive pricing and supply of essential medicines across the country.

The minister stated, “Today, the Federal Executive Council considered two elements that were related to health specifically, among other things. The first is in line with the direction of the president for Nigerians to have lower cost of drugs and wider access to essential medicines, quality access.

“This has been work that we have been undertaking for many months. In fact, for almost a year and a half, government has been trying different ways to reduce the cost, because we know the Nigerians were hurting because of rising cost of pharmaceuticals.

“It’s not limited to Nigeria. As you may be aware, even countries as far as the United States are placing executive orders to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals.

“But in line with the presidential initiative to unlock the healthcare value chain, and the executive order, which the president signed in June 2024, which provided incentives for local manufacturing by taking away tax tariffs for import of raw materials, so that we can encourage our local manufacturers.”

Pate explained, “There’s an element of that executive order, which is to allow us to shape the market by aggregating the demand in the Nigerian health space, and challenge that demand to encourage our local suppliers.

“Today, Council approved Medipool, it’s a group purchasing organisation, for competitive pricing and to be supplier of essential medicines and healthcare products across Nigeria, through the federal government’s intervention, the basic health care provision fund, but also eventually outside that, through federal tertiary hospitals, so that as a buyer, we can negotiate lower prices.”

He said, “So, it’s using monopsony power of government as a large buyer of those commodities, negotiate lower prices and then channel those commodities. And the scope includes, but it’s not limited to, procurement planning, distribution monitoring, supply chain, logistics management, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring that local manufacturers are supported.

“Then there are import substitution and the financial management and payment systems, as well as capacity building and training and contingency planning to ensure steady availability of essential drugs that are the quality that Nigerians can benefit from at a lower cost through, a public private partnership.

“And that vehicle Medipool has been vetted through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission. It has been benchmarked with other global group purchasing organisations, including Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and many other countries.

“And we believe that this is a major intervention that will shape the domestic market, so that the demand for quality pharmaceuticals can be channelled in a way that lowers cost and also improves quality and stimulates local manufacturing that is medical.”

The minister also disclosed that FEC gave its approval for the procurement and installation of N2.3 billion cardiac categorisation machine for Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital, in Sokoto.

The machine, when installed, will help the hospital to provide diagnosis and treatment services for heart and blood vessel patients.

According to Pate, “The second item was the award of contract for the procurement and installation of cardiac categorisation machine by the Usman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital in Sokoto in the amount of N2.3 billion.

“It is essentially to help the university hospital provide diagnosis and treatment services for heart and blood vessel problems, heart attacks, irregular heart rates. Those are very complicated, very serious medical issues.

“The University Hospital in Sokoto will now have this capability, which will serve the population in Sokoto State, the North-west geopolitical zone of our country, and indeed the country. It will save lives, but also contribute towards reversing outbound medical tourism, because Nigerians can be able to access services which either or they were not able to.

“And that is an important step, one more among several other interventions that was further supporting to strengthen the federal teaching hospitals to train and to provide quality service as part of the transformation of our health sector under the leadership of Mr. President.”