The Director General of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Dr. Obi Adigwe, has said that for Nigeria’s health sector to experience rapid development, there is the need for partnership among both local and international investors and players.

He insisted that without deliberate partnership, the desire to see the needed growth and development of the health sector will continue to be hopeless.

He stated this while responding to questions from journalists at the formal launch of the 5-year Strategic Plan of the Institute, in Abuja, Tuesday.

The Strategic Plan which is the second ever developed by the Institute is to enable NIPRD achieve its mandate to build a center of excellence for Research and Development (R&D) of phytomedicines, pharmaceuticals and biological products.

While noting that collaboration and partnership is key to achieving good outcomes in the health sector, Adigwe disclosed that the 5-year Strategic Plan was developed with technical and financial support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners.

“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,” he said.

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.

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