The Pharmacy Council of Nigeria has said that there are now 23 universities offering the Bachelor of Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy programmes in the country.
The Pharmacy Council said the B.Pharm or the PharmD programmes are the minimum registration qualifications to practice pharmacy in Nigeria.
The council, however, said it also recognises senior pharmacy colleagues with only the Diploma of Pharmacy Certificate as their highest qualification.
The Chairman of the Governing Council of the PCN, Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora, made this known at a media chat on the gazetted PCN (Establishment) Act 2022, in Abuja.
Prof. Mora said the first university to produce degree holders in Nigeria is the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in 1996.
He said, “The pharmaceutical landscape is getting better in terms of regulation and control with each legal instrument. For instance, the BME of 1927 was addressing dispensers, only as there were no pharmacy degree holders.”
The universities offering B.Pharm and PharmD programmes in the country are the Kaduna State University, Kaduna State; Gombe State University, Gombe State; Delta State University, Delta State; University of Ilorin, Kwara State; Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto State; University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State; University of Maiduguri, Borno State; Madonna University, Elele, Rivers State; Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State; University of Benin, Edo State; University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
Others are Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State; University of Jos, Plateau State; University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State; University of Lagos, Lagos State; University of Ibadan, Oyo State; Bayero University, Kano State; Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu and the University of Calabar, Cross Rivers State.
He added that with the new act, the PCN is now called the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria and no longer Pharmacists Council of Nigeria.
He said the new act empowers the council to regulate not just pharmacists but all stakeholders involved in the pharmacy distribution chain, such as pharmacy technicians and patent medicine vendors, manufacturers and importers, among others.
Also speaking, the Registrar of the Council, Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, said the council has delisted three foreign institutions over poor performance of graduates from such institutions.
”We have recognised that we have some challenges from some of our foreign universities bringing in pharmacists. We have presented memos to appropriate committees of the council and currently we have delisted three foreign universities because of the poor performance of graduates of those universities and we have also written those institutions because that is the foundation.
“We have delisted three; two from Cameroon and one from Togo. We are also looking at some others coming from the Middle East. We have commenced our investigations to ensure they actually have what it takes to train pharmacists, otherwise, we take the same step,” he said.