USAID begins construction of warehouse for essential drugs in Lagos, Nigeria.

The United State Agency for International Development (USAID) has given the go-ahead for the construction of a warehouse to be used for proper storage of essential medicines and health products in Nigeria. Speaking at the Ground Breaking Ceremony in Lagos, USAID’s Country Director, Mr Mike Harvey, said the project, which is estimated to be costing around $5 Million was a state-of-the-art warehouse. The cost of the construction project will be funded by USAID who are providing $4 million while an additional $1 million will be sourced from the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, and private sector contributions. “This warehouse will serve as a storage facility, one of those planned to be built in Lagos with the support of the U.S. and the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria. “This facility will support the country’s pharmaceutical supply chain, and once this is up and running, the warehouse will make sure that women, children and families in Nigeria get quality drugs. “It will also help to provide quality drugs in every part of the country’’ Harvey said. Mrs Dehab Ghebread, Acting U.S. Consul-General, said that Nigeria as a country of about 170 million people had challenges in the storage and distribution of healthy drugs. “The challenge for the government in Nigeria is to have reliable quality drugs across the 36 states and the recognition of that necessitated the need of this facility. “It will be a very large facility built in partnership with the Nigerian government, states and the private sector.”