Mr Owolabi Gafar, the Managing Director of Oroki Herbal Mixture on Friday urged the federal and state governments to create the enabling environment for the production and marketing of indigenous herbal medicines.
Gafar told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that this would encourage practitioners in the business to further go for more researches to upgrade the quality of the products.
He said that Nigerians should embrace indigenous herbal medicines in order to give room for its development in the country.
“We are blessed with different kinds of herbs which could be concocted and taken to cure a lot of ailments.
“There is the possibility of some herbal companies in Nigeria having herbs that can be used to cure Ebola.
“But due to people’s negative reaction to indigenous herbal medicines, such companies will have no confidence to present it.
“It is when these products are used that we can improve on it, and make it internationally recognised and acceptable,’’ Gafar said.
He urged governments to work on interest rates for loan procurement in banks for traditional herbal medicines practitioners in the country.
According to him, lack of funding has retarded the growth of most lucrative businesses, including for traditional herbal medicine practitioners in the country.
“Assessing loans in the country is almost impossible as a result of the interest rate it attracts.
“The interest rate can be slashed down to five to six per cent as against the 24 per cent interest rate we’ve been operating on,’’ he said.
Gafar noted that if herbal medicine practitioners were given reasonable attention and patronage, Nigerians with ailments would become happier and healthier individuals.
