Mr Mamadou Traoré (4th left) and Mr Lamin Barrow (5th right) with other officials of the ECOWAS Commission and AfDB
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the ECOWAS Commission have signed a memorandum of understanding for US$3.56 million in grant funding to support the development of pharmaceutical industries in West Africa.
The Managing Director of the Bank for Nigeria, Lamin Barrow, and Mamadou Traoré, ECOWAS Commissioner in charge of Industry and the Private Sector, signed the agreement for the Pharmaceutical Industry Development Support Project in West Africa.
The project’s total cost is US$3.77 million, to which the ECOWAS Commission will provide US$200,000 in cash and US$400,000 in-kind.
The funds will support the implementation of regulations to allow duty-free access to pharmaceutical raw materials, packaging, and finished products under the ECOWAS Common External Tariff.
It will also help establish an effective regional pharmaceutical regulatory ecosystem by providing technical assistance programmes for regional regulatory authorities.
“Local production of pharmaceuticals and biologicals has become an imperative and a regional priority, as is the provision of healthcare delivery services. The African Development Bank’s support of these priorities will help ECOWAS achieve its development objectives,” Commissioner Traoré said at the signing ceremony held in Abuja.
Mr Lamin Barrow in his remark said “the COVID-19 crisis has further exposed the fragility of our national healthcare systems and posed significant disruptions to the global health and pharmaceutical supply chains. This underscores the urgency of accelerating efforts to ensure a minimum level of supply of health products.”
The project
The project will enhance the pharmaceutical industry’s competitiveness through improved quality and product standards and help ensure that the region complies with best practices in manufacturing pharmaceutical products and supplies.
It will strengthen regional training institutions and laboratories to ensure that the required skills are available to support the industry’s regional growth in a gender-sensitive and environmentally friendly manner.
In response to calls from the African Union (AU) and the pharmaceutical industry, the AfDB has taken a leadership role in developing and driving a continental Vision and Action Plan for a new African Pharmaceutical order.
The President of the AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, announced in 2021 that the institution would mobilise up to US$3 billion to support this development.
The project will also advance the Bank’s efforts to support the harmonisation of the regulatory environment for pharmaceuticals across Africa at the regional and continental levels.
This, in tandem with the operationalisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), will deepen intra-African integration and trade, boosting regional markets.
The project aligns with three of the African Development Bank’s High Five strategic priorities: Industrialise Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. It also advances the Bank’s Regional Integration Strategy for West Africa, and is in line with the Bank’s gender strategy, and its strategic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ECOWAS Commission will be the executing agency for this project, which will run for two years. The West African Health Organisation will be the implementing agency.
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