Dr. Obi Adigwe, Director General of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Success (NIPRD) has hinted that partnership is important to the development of Nigeria’s health business.
He gave this hint while replying to press inquiries at the Institute’s formal presentation of its 5-year Strategic Plan in Abuja.
The Institute’s second Strategic Plan aims to help NIPRD fulfill its purpose of becoming a center of excellence for research and development (R&D) of phytomedicines, pharmaceuticals, and biological products.
While emphasizing the importance of collaboration and partnership in the health sector, Adigwe stated that the 5-year Strategic Plan was developed with technical and financial assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners.
According to him : “In the three years, NIPRD has partnered with governments and agencies across the world, including India, USA, South Africa, UK, Russia, Cuba, Ghana and Canada. That is why we have experience tremendous growth and achieve the milestone successes we recorded in the past three years since our management came board.
”The Strategic Plan will enable us to remain focused on our key mandate to improving the health status of Nigerian through quality research and development in the area of phytomedicines and other pharmaceutical products.”
Findings by our Correspondent, however, indicated that since he became the DG of NIPRD, Adigwe, has initiated and led engagement initiatives with over 70 entities in a bid to improve government’s effectiveness in achieving multi-sectoral development objectives using systems approach.
He explained that the Strategic Plan was developed through a bottom-up approach, followed by various relevant institutional and stakeholders’ consultations and engagements.
According to him, a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan for the tracking, analysis, collation, storage and reporting on the implementation updates of the plan for decision making was also developed alongside relevant stakeholders.
The NIPRD Director General further disclosed that the plan which aligns with the vision of the second National Strategic Health Development Plan (NSHDP II 2021 -2025) and the Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP 2021-2025) of the Federal Government of Nigeria proposes four strategic pillars.
The four pillars, he said, include optimization of the Institute’ capacity, optimization of NIPRD’s functions, health emergency preparedness and response and; health, pharmaceutical systems strengthening.
