Barbados signs agreement with Nigeria

Bar­ba­dos has signed a part­ner­ship agree­ment with Nige­ria to ad­vance lo­cal phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal pro­duc­tion, strength­en reg­u­la­to­ry co­op­er­a­tion, and ex­pand re­gion­al mar­ket ac­cess across the Caribbean, Latin Amer­i­ca, as well as the Eco­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ty of West African States (ECOW­AS).

The Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU) was signed be­tween Bar­ba­dos Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals Inc. (BPI) and Nige­ria’s Pres­i­den­tial Ini­tia­tive for Un­lock­ing the Health­care Val­ue Chain (PVAC), es­tab­lish­ing a com­pre­hen­sive frame­work for col­lab­o­ra­tion in four ar­eas, name­ly in­dus­tri­al ca­pac­i­ty and hu­man cap­i­tal de­vel­op­ment, mar­ket ac­cess and mar­ket shap­ing,  clin­i­cal tri­als co­op­er­a­tion and reg­u­la­to­ry, fi­nanc­ing, and pol­i­cy align­ment

A gov­ern­ment state­ment said that the agree­ment signed in Nige­ria, fol­lows months of high-lev­el en­gage­ments, in­clud­ing min­is­te­r­i­al dis­cus­sions held be­tween Bar­ba­dos’ Min­is­ter of Health, Dr. Jerome Wal­cott, and Nige­ria’s Co­or­di­nat­ing Min­is­ter of Health and So­cial Wel­fare, Pro­fes­sor Muham­mad Ali Pate.

It said that the ac­cord builds on on­go­ing work with AMA Med­ical Man­u­fac­tur­ing, a lead­ing Niger­ian bio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny ex­plor­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of a man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty in Bar­ba­dos.

Wal­cott wel­comed the part­ner­ship, not­ing that it aligns with the vi­sion ar­tic­u­lat­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley, who has re­peat­ed­ly called for a transat­lantic phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal bridge across Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin Amer­i­ca.

“This MOU rep­re­sents a de­ci­sive step in strength­en­ing health sov­er­eign­ty for both re­gions. Bar­ba­dos sees Nige­ria as a strate­gic part­ner in ad­vanc­ing in­dus­tri­al ca­pa­bil­i­ty, tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer, and shared health se­cu­ri­ty across the Glob­al South,” Wal­cott said.

Pate em­pha­sised Nige­ria’s com­mit­ment to ex­pand­ing lo­cal pro­duc­tion un­der Pres­i­dent Bo­la Ahmed Tin­ubu’s Ex­ec­u­tive Or­der aimed at achiev­ing 70 per cent do­mes­tic pro­duc­tion of es­sen­tial med­i­cines and med­ical de­vices by 2030.

“This part­ner­ship opens new path­ways for in­vest­ment, in­no­va­tion, and re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion. Nige­ria is pleased to join hands with Bar­ba­dos to shape a fu­ture where our na­tions pro­duce the med­i­cines our pop­u­la­tions de­pend on,” said Pro­fes­sor Pate.

Un­der the MOU, there will be the de­vel­op­ment of a Bar­ba­dos–Nige­ria phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal skills path­way, in­clud­ing ster­ile man­u­fac­tur­ing, and reg­u­la­to­ry train­ing as well as rec­i­p­ro­cal mar­ket en­try in­to CARI­COM/LATAM for Niger­ian pro­duc­ers and ECOW­AS for Bar­ba­dos-based man­u­fac­tur­ers.

The part­ner­ship al­so ad­vances on­go­ing dis­cus­sions with AMA Med­ical Man­u­fac­tur­ing, which is as­sess­ing the es­tab­lish­ment of a bio­med­ical and IV flu­id man­u­fac­tur­ing fa­cil­i­ty in Bar­ba­dos, cre­at­ing the first Africa–Caribbean phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal pro­duc­tion cor­ri­dor.

BRIDGETOWN, Bar­ba­dos, Nov 27, CMC

CMC/ag/ir/2025