SAM Pharmaceutical has opened a WHO-standard manufacturing plant in Ota, Ogun State, capable of producing 400 million tablets, 50 million capsules, two million bottles of liquid medicines and one million sachet products each month. The facility, launched during the company's 55th anniversary celebrations, aims to reduce Nigeria's dependence on imported pharmaceuticals.
Chairman Amit Bhojwani described the plant as marking the beginning of 'SAM Pharm 2.0,' positioning the company for future growth through innovation and advanced formulations. The company also administered deworming treatment to over 5,000 children across Ogun communities as part of its anniversary CSR activities.
Health Minister Iziaq Salako and NAFDAC Director-General Mojisola Adeyeye attended the inauguration, emphasising that such investments are crucial for strengthening Nigeria's healthcare system. SAM Pharma, which has operated in Nigeria for 55 years, plans additional expansion lines to meet growing demand.
The new facility represents part of broader efforts to build local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in Africa's most populous nation, where drug imports currently dominate the market.
Amit Bhojwani's 400-million-tablet monthly capacity claim exposes the yawning gap between Nigeria's pharmaceutical ambitions and reality. While SAM Pharma celebrates producing enough tablets to treat every Nigerian twice over, local manufacturers still supply less than 40% of the nation's drug needs.
This contradiction reveals how Nigeria's pharmaceutical industrial policy exists more on paper than in practice. Despite 55 years of operation, SAM Pharma's expansion comes at a time when the naira's collapse has made imports prohibitively expensive, suggesting market forces rather than strategic planning drove this investment. The company's simultaneous deworming campaign for 5,000 children feels like a publicity stunt when 46 million Nigerians still lack access to essential medicines.
For ordinary Nigerians buying malaria drugs at local pharmacies, this plant changes nothing. The tablets rolling off SAM Pharma's production lines will likely supply government hospitals and large pharmacies, while rural areas continue relying on Indian and Chinese imports that reach remote markets through informal distribution networks.
This follows a familiar pattern: Nigeria announces pharmaceutical self-sufficiency whenever currency crises make imports unaffordable, then quietly returns to foreign suppliers once exchange rates stabilise.
