By Emegwoako C. Paschal
The Pharmacy Council of Nigeria reports that the country now has 23 universities that provide Bachelor of Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy programs.
According to the Pharmacy Council, the required registration requirements to practice pharmacy in Nigeria are the B.Pharm or PharmD programs.
The council, however, claimed that it recognizes senior pharmaceutical colleagues who have only a Diploma of Pharmacy Certificate as their highest qualification.
Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora, Chairman of the PCN Governing Council, made the announcement during a press conference in Abuja on the newly gazetted PCN (Establishment) Act 2022.
Prof. Mora stated that the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, was the first university in Nigeria to produce degree holders in 1996.
“The pharmaceutical landscape is improving in terms of regulation and control with each legal instrument,” he stated. For example, the BME of 1927 addressed dispensers because there were no pharmacy degree holders.”
The universities in the country that offer B.Pharm and PharmD programmes are 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.
Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ogun State; Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State; the University of Jos in Plateau State; the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Enugu State; Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kaduna State; the University of Lagos in Lagos State; the University of Ibadan in Oyo State; Bayero University in Kano State; Enugu State University of Science and Technology in Enugu state and the University of Calabar in Cross Rivers State.
He further stated that, as a result of the new act, the PCN is now known as the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, rather than the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria.
According to him, the new statute gives the council the authority to control not only pharmacists but all parties in the pharmacy distribution chain, including pharmacy technicians, patent medication vendors, manufacturers, and importers, among others.
In addition, the Council’s Registrar, Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, stated that the council had delisted three overseas colleges due to poor performance of graduates from such institutions.
“We have seen that some of our overseas colleges bringing in pharmacists pose some issues.” We have provided memoranda to appropriate council committees, and we have currently delisted three international universities due to the poor performance of their graduates, and we have also written those institutions because that is the foundation.
“We delisted three people, two from Cameroon and one from Togo.” We are also considering some others from the Middle East. We have begun our investigations to guarantee they have the necessary qualifications to teach pharmacists; otherwise, we will take the same action,” he stated.
