By Joy Odor Reportcircle News
Nigeria is attempting a strategic shift from dependence on imported medical supplies to domestic manufacturing after the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority handed an operational licence to a specialised healthcare production zone designed to localise critical health commodities.
Managing Director of Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, Olufemi Ogunyemi, formally presented the Declaration and Operational Licence to promoters of Harvestfield Free Trade Zone in Abuja, positioning the project as a pivot point in the country’s healthcare industrialization push.
“Harvestfield FTZ is strategic,” Ogunyemi said. “It targets structural deficits in the health sector and opens a pathway for Nigeria to become an exporter of medical products.”
The new zone stems from a 2024 presidential order aimed at domestic manufacturing of healthcare products signed by Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to Presidential healthcare value-chain coordinator Abdu Mukthar, the facility represents implementation rather than policy rhetoric.
The zone will host a joint venture between Denmark-based manufacturer Vestergaard and Nigerian firm Harvestfield under SNG Health.
The first production line will manufacture dual-insecticide treated mosquito nets, a commodity Nigeria largely imports despite carrying one of the world’s heaviest malaria burdens.
Key project metrics:
Annual output: 10 million mosquito nets
Investment: $30 million initial capital
Jobs: About 600 positions in Ogun State
Start date: April 2026
Coverage: 30% of Nigeria’s domestic demand in first phase
Nigeria currently accounts for roughly 27% of global malaria cases and 30% of related deaths, making the product both a public health necessity and a high-volume import line.
NEPZA is positioning free trade zones as the bridge between healthcare policy and industrial capacity.
Ogunyemi said medical investors should leverage free zones to scale local production, arguing that trade facilitation and health security now intersect in national economic planning.
The Authority framed the initiative as part of a broader shift toward export-oriented manufacturing reducing foreign exchange pressure from medical imports while building a new industrial export category.
Economists note medical imports have quietly contributed to foreign exchange demand due to consistent procurement by public health programmes and donor-supported interventions.
Localising production could therefore deliver two effects simultaneously:
lower import expenditure
create exportable healthcare commodities
If scaled, Nigeria would move from being one of the largest recipients of malaria prevention supplies to a regional supplier.
Harvestfield FTZ effectively becomes a pilot for a new development model sector-specific free zones aligned to national vulnerabilities.
For policymakers, success would demonstrate that health security can double as industrial policy.
For investors, it signals a shift: Nigeria is no longer only a destination market for medical imports but a potential manufacturing base.
