According to the Pharmacy Council, the minimum registration qualifications to practise pharmacy in Nigeria are the Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) or Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programmes.
However, the council stated that it also recognises senior pharmaceutical colleagues whose highest qualification is just the Diploma of Pharmacy Certificate.
Prof. Ahmed Tijjani Mora, Chairman of the PCN Governing Council, disclosed this during a media briefing in Abuja on the recently gazetted PCN (Establishment) Act 2022.
Prof. Mora stated that the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, was the first university in Nigeria to produce degree holders in 1996.
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“The pharmaceutical landscape is improving in terms of regulation and control with each legal instrument,” he stated. For example, the BME of 1927 addressed dispensers because there were no pharmacy degree holders.”
The universities in the country that offer B.Pharm and PharmD programmes are:
- Kaduna State University, Kaduna State;
- Gombe State University, Gombe State;
- Delta State University, Delta State;
- University of Ilorin, Kwara State;
- Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto State;
- University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State;
- Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State;
- Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Anambra State;
- University of Maiduguri, Borno State;
- Madonna University, Elele, Rivers State;
- Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State;
- University of Benin, Edo State;
- University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State;
- Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State;
- Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State;
- University of Jos, Plateau State;
- University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State;
- Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State;
- University of Lagos, Lagos State;
- University of Ibadan, Oyo State;
- Bayero University, Kano State;
- Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu;
- University of Calabar, Cross Rivers State.
He further stated that, as a result of the new act, the PCN is now known as the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria rather than the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria.
According to him, the new act gives the council the authority to control not only pharmacists but all parties in the pharmacy distribution chain, including pharmacy technicians, patent medicine vendors, manufacturers, and importers, among others.
In addition, the Council’s Registrar, Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, stated that the council had delisted three overseas institutions due to the poor performance of graduates from such institutions.
“We have seen that some of our overseas universities bringing in pharmacists pose some issues.” We have provided memoranda to appropriate council committees, and we have currently delisted three international universities due to the poor performance of their graduates, and we have also written those institutions because that is the foundation.
“We delisted three, two from Cameroon and one from Togo.” We are also considering some others from the Middle East. We have begun our investigations to guarantee they have the necessary qualifications to train pharmacists; otherwise, we will take the same action,” he stated.
