May & Baker Nigeria Plc has urged the Federal Government to demonstrate consistency in its pooled procurement initiative by promptly paying local drug manufacturers to avoid pharmaceutical company losses and business collapse.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Ajah appealed on Friday during the company’s 2025 Walk for Life in Lagos to mark World Hypertension Day.
Ajah, who is a member of the government’s pooled procurement committee, commended the initiative aimed at reducing drug costs but warned against delayed payments, which he said have plagued previous government efforts.
“My warning is, as with many other things that the Federal Government has done, there should be consistency,” Ajah said. “It costs money to produce these drugs. When you make us come down on price, it means we’re compromising our profits.”
He disclosed that May & Baker and other firms had previously participated in similar government-led schemes but suffered heavy financial setbacks due to non-payment.
“Some of the times we’ve done this in the past, we’ve been beaten because our monies were not paid. I’m talking about five years now, the money is still hanging,” he lamented.
Ajah cautioned that failure to settle outstanding payments could deter local pharmaceutical companies from participating in the scheme and ultimately defeat its purpose.
“We need assurance that if we get into this, the government is going to pay because companies are going down. Many companies have collapsed in recent times. It’s not good.”
He also called on the government to support local manufacturers to reduce dependence on imported drugs, adding that the current economic realities demand stronger local capacity.
“We need to increase capacity for local companies to take care of our people instead of depending on foreign companies. But if you do not encourage the local companies, it’s not gonna work,” he said.
Ajah praised the recent executive order that waived import duties on raw materials for drug production, describing it as a step in the right direction.
He explained: “One of the things that they have done recently… The executive order on custom duties and all of that for medications, raw materials, and local producers has been waived by the government. It’s fantastic, and it needs to be continued.”
On the health awareness walk, Ajah said the exercise is part of the company’s wellness strategy for staff and a means of promoting regular health checks among Nigerians, especially those over 40 years of age.
“Anybody above 40 needs to check. Life history, family history – they’re all very important,” he advised.
He noted that each Walk for Life campaign leads to a reported increase in health checks and early diagnosis among the company’s clients and the wider public.
“Each time we do exercises like this, you’ll see a tick in the number of people doing checks, the number of people going to hospitals,” the May & Baker boss asserted.
“For our client base, we’re likely going to see at least two per cent of people showing up to check their blood pressure, and that could translate to the number of requests that we’ll get.”
Ajah reaffirmed May & Baker’s commitment to hosting the walk annually to raise public awareness on preventive health care.
