FG Rolls Out Herbal Remedies for Cancer, Hepatitis
Nigeria’s push to build a home grown pharmaceutical industry took a fresh turn on Tuesday when the Federal Government unveiled seven herbal medicines developed by the Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA) for conditions ranging from prostate and colorectal cancers to hepatitis B, peptic ulcer, hypertension and high cholesterol.
The products were presented at the agency’s Lagos office during a working visit by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Kingsley Udeh, who also met pharmaceutical industry leaders to discuss commercialisation. According to the NNMDA, the agency has produced more than 22 herbal products from indigenous medicinal plants since 2023.
Presenting the formulations, the Director General of NNMDA, Prof Martins Emeje, said the medicines now come in standard dosage forms such as capsules, tablets and syrups. He named a hepatitis B remedy called Namdavir, an anti ulcer product named Namdacid, a cancer focused product called Turmegol, a cholesterol and blood pressure product named Namdorol, an aphrodisiac branded Namgor, and a Zobo Tea for hypertension.
Emeje, who co chairs the World Health Organisation’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine, made strong claims for the range. “We have scientific evidence that it can stop the progression of cancers or eliminate early cancer cells,” he said of Turmegol, adding that Namdavir was “highly active against the Hepatitis B virus.” He said one of the products, when fully developed across the value chain, could generate 3.5 million jobs.
The claims land on fertile ground. Nigeria carries the heaviest hepatitis B burden in sub Saharan Africa, with recent estimates putting prevalence between 5.4 and 9.5 percent of the population and roughly 14 million people living with the virus. WHO linked figures attributed about 46,000 hepatitis B deaths in the country in 2022. Cancer is also climbing. GLOBOCAN data for 2022 recorded roughly 127,000 new cancer cases nationwide, with prostate cancer the most common malignancy in men at 18,019 new cases and 11,443 deaths, and colorectal cancer accounting for more than 8,000 cases. Hypertension, which two of the new products target, affects an estimated 25 to 40 percent of Nigerian adults, while non communicable diseases account for close to three in ten deaths.
Yet the announcements sit within an unresolved scientific debate. The therapeutic claims attached to the products have not been published in peer reviewed clinical trials, and the agency itself has repeatedly stressed that the evidence base is still being built. During the same visit, Emeje appealed for a Clinical Observational Research Centre at the agency’s Victoria Island headquarters, calling it one of its most urgent needs, and pointed to inadequate funding, weak research infrastructure and unclear guidelines for clinical evaluation as obstacles to validating traditional medicines. In October 2025, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and NNMDA announced a partnership to develop what both described as scientifically proven herbal medicines.
Udeh said the government would move quickly to build the research centre without waiting for the 2027 budget, and would seek alternative funding. “Nigeria has the potential to produce and export natural medicines worth billions of dollars,” he said, citing the resolution of his meeting with industry leaders.
The latest unveiling builds on earlier steps. The agency launched four herbal products in 2024 targeting sickle cell disease, diabetes, immune support and anti aging, and has said it plans to extend traditional medicine practice to all 774 local government areas. Emeje has also argued that standardisation, including the use of nanotechnology, now allows proper dosing of remedies long dismissed as unregulated.
The Consul General of India in Lagos, Shri Kannan, whose country runs a large state backed traditional medicine sector, said there were opportunities for collaboration in medicinal plant research, scientific validation and quality assurance.