Minister charges supply chain experts on innovation

Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has called on the health supply chain experts in the country to come up with innovative ideas to curb the lapses currently experienced in health commodity management in the country.

Speaking at the 2017 African Conference on Healthcare Delivery in Abuja, the minister stressed the need for effectiveness and efficiency in health supply chain management for improved health outcome in the African region.

He commended the efforts of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in their relentless support in the health sector of Nigeria.

Global Fund’s head of supply chain department, Martin Elis, pointed out that tremendous progress has been made by Nigeria in health commodity management with the department of food and drugs of the ministry playing a critical role through the Nigeria Supply Chain Integration Project (NSCIP).

He, however, noted that more work still needs to be done most especially with the country fully committed to transitioning from parallel to integrated health supply chain systems with decentralized warehouses and efficiently run commodity distribution networks.

National Coordinator NSCIP, Linus Odoemene, stressed the need for all hands to be on deck most especially in this very important period of health commodity management in the country.

The pharmacist stressed those incidences of commodity expiries and wastage need to be drastically reduced through innovative supply chain solutions.