Despite President Bola Tinubu’s 2024 executive order abolishing tariffs, excise duties, and VAT on pharmaceutical machinery and raw materials, Nigerians continue to face crippling drug prices.
The policy, announced in June 2024 by the Coordinating Minister of Health, Muhammad Pate, was meant to cut production costs, boost local manufacturing, and reduce the price of essential medicines. The Nigeria Customs Service confirmed it began enforcement in March 2025, granting two-year tax exemptions on raw materials like active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and diagnostic kits.
However, market surveys reveal that drug prices have surged between 30% and 100% in the past 14 months. Insulin rose from ₦14,000 in June 2024 to ₦18,000 in August 2025; Exforge, a hypertension drug, jumped from ₦32,800 to ₦60,000; while Coartem, a common malaria treatment, doubled from ₦3,800 to ₦8,500. Only a handful of drugs, including Augmentin and Ventolin inhaler, recorded price drops.
Experts blame the persistent hikes on slow implementation, Nigeria’s dependence on imports, forex instability, energy costs, and policy inconsistencies. The National President of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, Ambrose Ezeh, said the order “has not been implemented,” while others, like Abuja ACPN chairman Olatunji Aloba, noted that only new imports reflected exemptions.
Patients and residents across states told The Newsmen they were still struggling. Some reported switching to herbs or rationing prescriptions. Diabetes and malaria patients, in particular, said medicines had become unaffordable, with insulin now selling for as high as ₦20,000.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers warned that a new 4% Free-on-Board levy on imports could wipe out the benefits of the tariff waivers, threatening to push prices even higher in 2026.
Stakeholders, including the Nigerian Medical Association and resident doctors, urged full implementation of the executive order, better healthcare financing, and expansion of insurance coverage. Without stronger enforcement and support for local drug production, they warned, affordable medicine will remain out of reach for millions of Nigerians.
