Plateau citizens to enjoy quality, affordable drugs

By EZEKIEL DONTINNA

The Executive Director, Plateau State Drugs and Medical Commodities Management Agency (DMCMA), Pharmacist Kim Jerry Bot has assured residents of the state of the agency’s resolve to manage and provide quality and affordable drugs toward a healthy Plateau.

He gave the assurance recently, in an interview with journalists shortly after a team of  inspectors from the UNICEF visited the ongoing construction work of a world class drugs and medical commodity management warehouse at headquarters of the agency in Jos, the Plateau State capital.

The Executive Director said, “I am not surprised that people do not know what the Plateau State Drugs and Medical Commodities Management Agency is all about. It is a dream come true to some of us who are pharmacists because the major target is to ensure that medicines are accessible and affordable to every citizen in the state.

“Now, access and affordability underscore quality of the medicines and how you handle the packaging of the medicines. So, one of the key troubles that we are having today in the entire country is that we have the infiltration of very poor quality medicine.

“Governor Caleb Mutfwang is insisting that Plateau people must get quality drugs and it must be made affordable to the citizens because of the fact that there are so many fake drugs in circulation in the market now”, he disclosed.

Bot, however, expressed joy that Plateau State was lucky to have a gigantic project in the state among the other 21 states that benefited from the UN gesture because the governor promptly paid the counterpart funds to attract the project to the state.

On his part, the Project Manager of the contracting firm, Beacon Creative Ideas Ltd, Moses Oseremen, said they started the contract September 20, 2023 and were supposed to complete it March 7, 2024, but for some challenges. However, he promised to complete the contract in a month’s time.

Oseremen disclosed that some of the challenges faced in the course of constructing the world class commodity warehouse was space for access road and parking. To take care of these issues, they planned to extend it so that they could have easy access to railway.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of DMCMA, earlier led the management team of the agency on a courtesy visit to the office of the Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Hon. Musa Ibrahim Ashom, soliciting for collaboration in the area of awareness campaign.