Pharmaceutical marketers in Lagos have alerted to the alleged hijack of the Coordinated Wholesale Centre (CWC) project by a few individuals and entities.
The Lagos Island-based marketers, under aegis of Nigeria Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers (NAPPMED), said the drug distribution hub, meant to sanitise and regulate the chaotic open drug markets, is now a private monopoly leaving over 3,000 legitimate medicine dealers sidelined.
At the heart of the controversy is Ijora-Badia CWC, originally conceived as a public health reform to ensure safe, quality, and regulated drug distribution, reports The Nation.
Stakeholders said vested interests allegedly use financial muscle and connections to edge out authentic operators.
NAPPMED Chair, Liberation Zone, Osita Nwajide said: “Medicine dealers paid for that land under Lagos State Medicine Dealers Association. But we have been pushed aside. We are demanding either our land back or a second CWC.”
Nwajide noted that over 920 marketers contributed between N100,000 and N1,000,000 in 2011 to buy the land for CWC, with hope of operating in a regulated space.
However, with shop prices pegged at N93.5 million per unit, he said those who funded it have been priced out.
“They are asking us for N93.5 million a shop. How many can afford that? Many are small to medium-scale. It’s impossible,” Nwajide lamented.
Observers warn that the monopoly threatens the economic survival of legitimate drug marketers and integrity of the distribution system.
“With only 720 shops available and over 3,000 displaced marketers, the result is market exclusion, supply distortions, and risk of black-market proliferation,” he said.
Already, Lagos residents are beginning to feel the heat. Reports indicate rising drug prices, reduced product variety, and growing cases of stockouts across retail pharmacies, signs of a supply chain under stress.
Nwajide warned that If the association demands are not met, “we will see an increase in black-market drug distribution in Lagos. This could lead to dangerous shortages, infiltration of counterfeit drugs, and a full-scale public health crisis.”
