NNMDA, Bloom Public Health partner to improve research, safety of natural medicines in Nigeria

The research and safety of natural medicines in Nigeria are expected to improve as a result of the partnership between the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) and Bloom Public Health.

The NNMDA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a pharmaceutical think-tank, Bloom Public Health, yesterday, May 26, 2021, to support its capacity-building efforts and aid in establishing quality management
systems that meet international standards of operating.

Director-General/ Chief Executive of NNMDA, Dr. Samuel Oghene Etatuvie, said the partnership aims to achieve
the goal of ensuring the availability of safe medicines of local sources for the citizens of Nigeria.

Etatuvie said the use of natural medicines has been an agelong tradition in Nigeria and even more so, ever-increasing in practice in contemporary times as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. He said the use of natural medicine is an element of culture in Nigeria and therefore requires continuous research to identify its benefits and verify that it is not harmful to the Nigerian citizen.

The pharmacist said this partnership between the organisations would result in the accreditation of NNMDA’s Laboratories in ISO 17025: 2017.

“The achievement of the accreditation enhances the reliability of test results generated by the NNMDA laboratory and this will improve the safety of natural medicines in Nigeria.

The Bloom experts would also provide training for the technical staff of the organization,” he said.

After signing the MoU the Director-General/ Chief Executive of NNMDA, Dr. Samuel Oghene Etatuvie, stated that “in today’s research globally, no organization succeeds in isolation, as such we are open for networking, collaboration and general partnership for the common public health interest in our nation and globally. Hence this collaboration with Bloom Public Health becomes necessary and timely.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bloom Public Health, Prof.

Chimezie Anyakora, said: “We can no longer ignore the importance and widespread use of traditional medicines in
Africa. Bloom is looking forward to this partnership and believes it will be one more opportunity to advance public
health in Nigeria. We are excited to see the commitment of the leadership and staff of NNMDA and promise to match
it with our own commitment.

This will be highly beneficial to the Nigerian population and bring traditional medicines close to the mainstream pharmaceutical sector.”

The NNMDA was established in 1997 to enable the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of
Science & Technology (FMST) to actualise its critical and strategic mandate to research, develop, document, preserve, conserve and promote Nigeria’s Natural Medicine (Traditional/indigenous healthcare systems, medications, and non-medication healing arts, science and technology) and assist facilitate their integration into the national healthcare delivery system.

Bloom Public Health concept was born from the need to create strategic and operational solutions at the African
level for public health problems, and particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.