Managing Director of Phamatex Industries Limited, Prince Christopher Nebe says government should patronise locally manufactured pharmaceuticals to encourage local industries. He called for development of local infrastructure like roads, electricity, to reduce cost of producing drugs locally.
He advised that government should endeavour to maintain a stable exchange rate as fluctuation in exchange rate affects local businesses adversely. He spoke with AZOMA CHIKWE. Excerpts.
What has kept you in pharmaceutical manufacturing business despite the harsh economic situation?
Well perseverance is what has kept me in business, because this is my first love. My very first major business I started way back about 30 years ago. I need to sustain it and sustain my staff strength, so, that is what actually has kept me, the passion for pharmaceuticals. I have passion for pharmaceuticals, it is a health delivery endeavour and we deliver good health to the people, people depend on our product to survive, so we can’t leave that. We are just providing quality product to save lives.
What comes first in your company’s decision and policy making?
What comes first is quality, you have to send that signal of quality. So, quality comes first. Because on the long run, the question will be what quality of products are you bringing out, if it is services, what quality of services? That is what people are looking out for. .What is the content? ,Are you doing the right thing? Will the customer benefit if he takes it,will it work as the producer claims? These are the things that will come to your mind when making products.
What made you decide pharmaceuticals will be your line of business?
You may try many businesses, but where God wants you to be is were you will be. God has destined it that I will be in this field otherwise I have been doing other businesses in the past before .I came into this business and God is helping me. So, I think it is God that has directed me .I had other businesses and they were fine.
What are your major challenges as a pharmaceutical company?
Major challenges are enormous, one, we are saddled with the problem of the downward plunge of the naira against the dollar, the value of the naira suddenly dropped and other things followed including recession for two years. There was no money, even if you have the naira, you cannot find the dollar to buy, it was terrible for two years and every company lost her deposit.In fact, there was no company in Nigeria that didn’t lose 50 per cent of its business ,but things are trying to improve .
When you have unstable foreign exchange rate it is like a killer disease..We need a stable exchange rate, you can’t be going up and down fixing prices,.so, what government has done now stabilising the naira for six to nine months is very good. Of course, we have the issue of power, there is no light, we have to buy diesel at 200 naira per litre.All these make importation appear a better option than manufacturing.So, government should address this issue and keep our roads good, especially in the industrial areas. Even we that have gas plant still have problems because most of the time there is no gas to work because of this Niger Delta problem. There was a time they damaged the pipelines and there was no gas and it affected us, we had no gas for about 2 to 3 months and it was like back to square one. Tell me how much diesel will be bought to do the work in a day. So, these are the areas.manufactures need to be encouraged. We have a lot of staff here, how do they survive? These people have families to feed , if government don’t encourage manufactures and they are sacked, of what use is it? A .lot of things go into manufacturing, so you are bound to employ a lot of people, it is not like import business where a person may only need staff like accountants. So, these are some of our problems.
How has your company been coping with foreign exchange scarcity and rise in dollar rate?
The situation was a terrible experience, every company lost deposit, but we hope that having stabilised the naira in the last few months, they will maintain it. That is the way forward, even though the current rate is still high, at least something is happening. The government is doing some work on the matter.
In what ways did it affect your business?
Well, it has affected everything, everything is affected.
How many products do you have in your portfolio?
We have over 50 products and we just started our plant 4 to 5 years ago, 40 to 50 products registered with NAFDAC.So we are moving at a good pace, only that manufacturing cost is high because of these issues – no light, no water you have to do your own borehole and other things.
What is your flagship product?
I have a lot of flagship products, we have our own antimalerial ,our lumapil is also doing well- ,arthemeter lumenfentrin , 40480(the big strength), it is doing well and other products. Some of our products are coming up in the market, though its not easy because the price fluctuates. Sometimes if you fix your price customers will react.
How do you see the pharmaceutical industry?
Well, the future is bright if the government can encourage us, we have an umbrella body called Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Group of Manufactrers Association of Nigeria (PMG MAN), government should work with them and solve most of their problems. We have a lot of problems as local manufacturers, so, the government needs to encourage us by buying products made in Nigeria and there are certain policies government can bring that will help.
What technical skills have you learnt from your foreign partner Hovid?
We can not manufacture less than Hovid standard because Hovid products are really established in Nigeria and well publicised, so, we can not go below Hovid standard. We are maintaining Hovid standard, don’t forget that this factory was built to WHO standards. We will get WHO prequalification very soon. WHO actually come here so many times, so we maintain WHO standards.
What are your immediate plans for expansion?
There is no immediate plans for that because we just started. We have to consolidate on what ever we have. If government gives us enabling environment by trying to solve most of our problems – exchange rate, light and other things then one can talk of expansion. But as a matter of fact, we have done a future expansion. We just completed an expansion program recently inside the factory.yes inside the factory we have done expansion and we have completed it.
What is relationship with NAFDAC, PMG-MAN,PSN and WHO?
Ans;very cordial, very very cordial.
What advice do you have for policy makers?
Well, what I have to say is that the government should listen to manufacturers because they employ a lot of staff and a lot of people feed from these companies. So, the government should really work with PMG-MAN to make sure that the problems are solved. Government should look into all these problems. That is my advice.