As the 84th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences opens in Montreal, Canada, two research abstracts from Nigeria’s Community Pharmacists Assessment and Career Progression Institute, CPACPI, are being presented to pharmacy leaders, regulators, and researchers from across the world.
This is more than academic recognition. It is the next step in a journey that began in Denmark last year when the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, ACPN, introduced the CPACPI framework to FIP and saw it adopted by the FIP Community Pharmacy Section. In twelve months Nigeria moved from being noticed to being studied, and now to being invited to teach.
The timing matters because Nigeria is in the middle of its most deliberate push to rebuild pharmaceutical self-sufficiency. In 2026 the federal government announced plans to commission at least 11 new pharmaceutical manufacturing projects to raise local production from about 50 percent of national drug needs to 70 percent and to position Nigeria as a regional hub for West Africa.
NAFDAC’s 5+5 registration policy is compelling foreign firms to submit verifiable plans for local production. The African Medicines Agency treaty was ratified in May 2026 to harmonize approvals across the continent. The National Health Insurance Authority is expanding coverage and states are pushing mandatory schemes. In the first quarter of 2026 the federal government also launched Medipool to cut medicine costs through bulk procurement. All of these reforms assume something that is rarely stated directly.
Medicines alone do not deliver health. They require a workforce that ensures the right drug reaches the right patient with the right counseling and follow up. That is the role community pharmacies play every day.
Nigeria has over 20,000 of them, and for most Nigerians they are the first and most accessible point of care. CPACPI was built to standardize that workforce. It provides assessment, career progression and practice-based data that can guide regulation, insurance reimbursement and public health programs.
The two abstracts heading to Montreal are products of that system and will be presented by Dr Iyeseun Asieba, Chairman of the CPACPI Board, and Omokhafe Mary Ashore, ACPN National Secretary, under Prof Chukwuemeka Ubaka’s research team.
The challenges are also part of this story. Manufacturers continue to cite power costs, limited financing and weak infrastructure as barriers. Those same pressures affect pharmacies and their ability to digitize cold chain and integrate with insurance. But waiting for perfect infrastructure before professionalizing the workforce is not an option.
The countries that turned community pharmacy into a pillar of health security did not wait. They built the profession alongside the system. The lessons are clear.
In the United Kingdom, community pharmacists were integrated into the National Health Service through a contractual framework that included vaccinations, minor ailment management and medication reviews. That reduced pressure on doctors and delivered savings. In Canada, pharmacists gained expanded prescribing rights and led in chronic disease management and immunization, making pharmacies central to primary care. In Rwanda, government partnered with community pharmacies to extend insurance and manage non-communicable diseases using standardized training and data reporting. In India, the Jan Aushadhi program combined affordable generics with accredited pharmacies and invested in pharmacist training to build trust. In each case, policy treated pharmacists as providers and paid for their services, not just their products.
Nigeria now stands at that same point. CPACPI gives us standardization. The Montreal presentation gives us evidence. FIP’s adoption last year gives us international credibility. What is needed now is domestic action to match it. NHIA must include CPACPI certified pharmacies in benefit packages and reimburse cognitive services. The Federal Ministry of Health and the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking Healthcare Value Chain must fund CPACPI rollout as part of human capital development. Schools of Pharmacy must align training with the framework. States must integrate community pharmacies into primary health care and state insurance schemes.
If we do this, access to quality pharmaceutical care will expand without long travel. Data will improve decisions on antimicrobial resistance, maternal health, diabetes and hypertension. Jobs will grow in a sector that is already expanding. And Nigeria will export not only medicines but also models of practice. When the doors open in Canada, Nigerian pharmacists will go with evidence, not requests. It is time for Nigeria to meet them with policy, funding, and implementation. That is how other countries got it right, and that is how Nigeria will too.
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