The Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency has commenced the creation of a comprehensive national database of traditional medicine practitioners to sanitise, standardise and strengthen the sector.
The Director-General of the agency, Prof. Martins Emeje, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, saying the initiative would bring credibility, structure and global visibility to Nigeria’s traditional medicine ecosystem.
Emeje said the move followed his appointment in December 2025 as Co-Chair of the World Health Organisation’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine.
According to him, about 80 per cent of Nigerians estimated at over 160 million people — rely on traditional medicine, especially in rural communities where access to orthodox healthcare remains limited, making regulation and documentation imperative.
“Traditional medicine remains the most patronised form of healthcare in Nigeria and globally, yet it is chaotic, controversial and poorly funded because it lacks organisation,” he said.
He explained that the agency began building a digital registry eight months ago to capture practitioners, their services, products and locations, adding that each verified practitioner would be issued a unique identification number after physical inspection of their facilities.
“After registering and documenting practitioners electronically, we verify their places of practice, the services they render and the products they use. We then issue them numbers because we have the full coordinates of their clinics,” he said.
Emeje said the agency was targeting practitioners across all 774 local government areas of the country, noting that a pilot project had already been completed in Iseyin Local Government Area of Oyo State.
“What we did in that local government is what we are cascading nationwide. By doing so, we will know how many practitioners exist, where they operate and the services they provide.
Documentation is the first and most important element of standardisation,” he added.
The NNMDA boss said the pilot programme would be presented to the National Assembly as a proposal and implemented fully once funding was secured.
He noted that the initiative aligned with the WHO’s strategy to support member states in developing comprehensive databases for traditional medicine practitioners, adding that Nigeria was already benefitting from global policy engagements in the sector.
Emeje also lamented that global funding for traditional medicine research remained below one per cent, despite the high patronage of natural remedies worldwide.
“It is a shame that less than one per cent of global research funding goes to traditional medicine, even though it serves the majority of healthcare consumers,” he said.
He identified education, research and standard-setting as critical pillars for advancing the sector, revealing that the NNMDA’s School of Traditional Medicine was working towards accreditation and quality assurance for practitioner training.
“Our goal is not to replace indigenous knowledge but to structure and preserve it through education, research and regulation,” he said.
Emeje cited China and India as examples of countries that had successfully integrated traditional medicine into their healthcare systems through strong policies, research investment and structured education.
He added that Nigeria would leverage the WHO’s renewed focus on traditional medicine to attract more research funding, generate scientific evidence and validate the safety and efficacy of natural medicines.
According to him, his position at the WHO would also enable Nigeria and Africa to contribute meaningfully to global policy discussions, research collaborations and capacity development in traditional medici
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