The Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) says it has started creating a comprehensive national database of traditional medicine practitioners as part of efforts to standardise and strengthen the sector.
Director-General of NNMDA, Prof. Martins Emeje, said this on Tuesday, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Emeje said this following his appointment as Co-Chair, WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (STAG-TM) in December 2025.
Speaking on how he intended to leverage the position to advance traditional medicine practice in Nigeria and Africa, Emeje said the agency had recognised the need to index traditional medicine practitioners in the country.
Emeje said that about 80 per cent of Nigerians, estimated at over 160 million people, relied on traditional medicine, particularly those in rural communities who lack access to conventional healthcare.
According to him, it will bring sanity in the ecosystem, credibility and create more visibility for the country’s natural medicine in the global space.
Emeje said that from its analysis, traditional medicine remained the most patronised in the country and globally but yet appeared controversial and poorly funded.
“Traditional medicine ecosystem is in chaos because it lacks proper organisation.
“In my Pharmacy profession, I have a number and when you input that number on the website of the regulatory body, my name will come out, where I work and my current license.
“Traditional medicine in Nigeria lacks that and for the first time in Nigeria, we have started solving that problem.
“Eight months ago, we started the digital database of traditional medical practitioners, their practices, their products.
“After registering you, documenting you based on our electronic system, we will now verify your place of practice, the kind of practice you render, the products that you have in those places,’’ Emeje said.
According to him, it will verify these records and then issue the practitioner a number because it has full coordinates of the practitioners’ clinic.
He said the target was to capture practitioners in the 774 Local Government Areas of the country, adding that it had created a pilot with Iseyin Local Government in Oyo State.
“That which we have done for that particular local government is what we are cascading to all the local governments in Nigeria.
“By so doing, we will know the number of traditional medical practitioners in Nigeria, the services they provide and where they live, where their services are.
“Documentation is the first and most important element of standardisation,’’ he said.
The D-G said the pilot would be presented to the National Assembly as proposal and be implemented once the funds were available.
Emeje said the initiative aligned with WHO’s current strategy to support member states in developing comprehensive databases of traditional medicine practitioners.
He added that Nigeria was already benefitting from this global agenda due to its active participation at the policy level.
On research, the NNMDA boss said that global funding for traditional medicine research remained below one per cent, despite the high level of usage worldwide.
“Research funding in the area of traditional medicine is a shame, it is less than one per cent.
“We talk of humongous research funding in pharmaceuticals and yet less than one per cent goes to the most populated part of healthcare consumers.
“Traditional medicine consumers form the majority of healthcare users globally, yet research investment does not reflect this reality,” he said.
Emeje also identified education and standard-setting as critical pillars for advancing the sector.
He said that the NNMDA’s School of Traditional Medicine was working towards accreditation and quality assurance for training programmes for practitioners and interested persons.
According to him, the goal is not to replace indigenous knowledge, but to structure and preserve it through formal education, research and regulation.
“Traditional practitioners possess deep expertise. The role of the system is to recognise, document and strengthen their knowledge, not undermine it,” he said.
He noted that countries such as China and India had successfully integrated traditional medicine into their healthcare systems through structured education, research and policy support.
Emeje said Nigeria was moving in the same direction by aligning with the WHO’s strategic objectives for traditional medicine, which included evidence-based practice, strong regulatory frameworks, integration into healthcare systems and international collaboration.
He said his position at WHO would enable Nigeria and Africa to contribute meaningfully to global policy discussions, research collaborations and capacity development in traditional medicine. (NAN)
