The Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) has enjoined laboratory scientists to collaborate to strengthen the local production capacity of medical consumables.
The President of HFN, Dr Njide Ndili, gave the advice at the 13th Annual 2026 Scientific Conference of the Guild of Medical Laboratory Directors (GMLD) on Thursday in Lagos.
The conference had the theme: “Rising Global Risks, Local Solutions: Strengthening In-country Production of laboratory Consumables and Vaccines”.
Ndili, also the Country Director, PharmAccess Foundation, Nigeria, decried that the healthcare professionals often worked in silos, which she said, was an impediment to progress and recognition of some healthcare professions.
According to her, the laboratory scientists are very integral to the healthcare, urging them to collaborate and work together to enhance their local production capacity and relevance.
“Oftentimes, the health sector operates in silos; every profession faces its problems and they don’t work together. Wearing the cap of the Federation, our mandate is to bring health professionals together for improved patients’ health outcomes.
“The medical lab scientists are very critical to the healthcare system, it is important that lab scientists come together, collaborate and coordinate to promote their relevance in patient care.
“If we continue to work in silos, we cannot produce the medical reagents we need in-country. There are more private labs than public labs, we shouldn’t wait for the government to strengthen the system.
“Let’s not operate in silos. Let’s organise ourselves so that you can access financing, strengthen our healthcare system, locally produce and leverage digital technologies,” Ndili said.
The Chairman, GMLD, Lagos State, Branch Mrs Doris Mark, described the conference as an opportunity for laboratory scientist to come together to interacte and familiarise with the new technologies and developments in the medical laboratory space.
Mark assured the guild’s commitment toward development and strengthening of the local production of medical reagents through its technical working team.
“In this conference, our target is to strengthen the in-country production of local medical consumables and reagents.
“Of recent, we started having local production,, and that has actually helped the diagnostic space.
“It is also a way of reducing activities of the middle men, whose activities often result to high cost of laboratory services. And come this time next year we will be able to have the local medical products readily available in the markets,” Mark said.
The Chief Executive Officer, Sicuro Bioengineering Ltd., Dr Anyanwu Ikechukwu urged the Federal Government to intensify more efforts toward provision of the enabling environment for the local manufacturing companies to operate.
In his keynote speaker, Ikechukwu represented by the General Manager, DCL Laboratory Products Ltd., Mr Andrew ALaefule, identified power supply, lack of raw materials, capacity building and financing as some of the challenges.
“No doubt, the government has really done a lot to encourage the local manufacturers particularly in the area tariffs and some other incentives.
“But more still need to be done; power supply, capacity building and sourcing of raw materials are major challenges limiting effective operation of the local manufacturers,” Ikechukwu said.
The National President, GMLD, Dr Sam Fele reiterated commitment of the national body to pioneer the local production of medical reagents and chemical, as a national committee has been set up to champion the move.
“This is so germaine to the national body of GMLD, which actually kickstarted the move in its Kano conference last year.
“The national committee set up to this regard is still meeting as we speak.
“We cannot continue to depend on importation of these medical reagents and chemicals – it is not sustainable, as their prices are going up daily.
“The idea is to see how we can develop in-country production of the medical consumables and chemicals used in the country. And that will make the products cheaper and even create job opportunities for citizens
“But the guild cannot do it alone, we need collaboration of a lot of agencies – the Federal and State government, regulatory and legal authorities,” Fele said.
