The ‘Organised Crime: West African Response to Trafficking,’ a project of the Economic Community of West African States has said illicit and counterfeit medical products from China and India are taking over the drug markets in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin Republic, Togo, Guinea and other countries in the sub-region.
The OCWAR-T in a study observed that the illegal drugs were often shipped from Guangzhou in China and cleared through the ports in Apapa, Tema, Cotonou and Conakry using intermediaries.
It observed that West Africa had become a hotspot for the trafficking of medical products, estimating that the illicit market makes up to 80 per cent of medical products in Burkina Faso and Guinea.
The ECOWAS report estimated that smuggled medical products make up between 20 per cent and 60 per cent of the formal market across the region.
This was contained in the 2023 OCWAR-T report titled, ‘Bad pharma: trafficking illicit medical products in West Africa.’
