China pharmaceutical industry investors want to help sub-Saharan African countries meet growing domestic demand for medicine in return for tax breaks and private-public partnership initiatives. But there are difficulties, including product quality and standards issues that impede the flow of Chinese Yuan into African pharma production. Indeed, converting financial resources into operating manufacturing plants can be a slow and troublesome process in the region’s less than optimal corporate governance climate.
Nigeria, now Africa’s largest economy, with a population of 173 million, is a key target for Chinese investors, but progress has been slow: its volatile security situation, rising inflation and cumbersome ports are major obstacles for Chinese companies used to working in less challenging environments. In October 2015, Frank Jacobs, President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) described the current drug distribution system in Nigeria as chaotic, adding that it continues to expose consumers to the dangers of substandard and counterfeit medicines.
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