Nigeria is AMA's 34th ratifier, but 20-plus states still stay out

Nigeria deposited its instrument of ratification of the African Medicines Agency Treaty, becoming the 34th African Union member state to do so. NAFDAC announced the development in a post on its official X account. Ambassador A. Twum-Amoah, Commissioner of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development of the African Union, announced it at the inaugural African Medicines Agency Week in Kigali, Rwanda. The conference was chaired by Dr. Delese Mimi Darko, Director General of the AMA Governing Board and representative of the Conference of State Parties and AU Special Envoy, and attended by medicines regulatory agencies from across the continent.

The ratification is framed as a step toward harmonising medicines regulation and combating substandard and falsified medical products. That framing is accurate as far as it goes. The treaty's collective weight increases with each deposit, and Nigeria's participation signals commitment to harmonised regulation, pharmaceutical development and local drug manufacturing.

But the practical stakes for patients depend on whether AMA can reduce the fragmentation that forces sponsors and regulators to navigate roughly 54 separate jurisdictions. Review timelines for the same dossier have ranged from about 60 days to well over a year. Africa's pharmaceutical market is estimated at 30 billion USD, yet 70 to 95 per cent of medicines consumed on the continent are imported. A pharmaceutical trade deficit of approximately 12.5 billion USD was recorded in 2020. Harmonisation is tied to both access and manufacturing ambitions.

AMA became operational in Kigali in October 2025. It is intended to coordinate, not replace, national regulators. That distinction matters. More than 20 AU member states have yet to ratify the treaty.

What readers can take from this: the ratification is a milestone, not an operational shift.