Medipool names nine-member board to oversee cheaper medicine buying
- Medipool Nigeria Limited has inaugurated a nine-member board chaired by founder Dr. Oluwaseun Abiola.
- The body buys medicines in bulk for public hospitals and was cleared by the Federal Executive Council.
- The board met in Abuja on 14 October and is expected to tighten oversight of the organisation.
A company set up to buy medicines in bulk for Nigeria's public hospitals now has a full board to watch over it. Medipool Nigeria Limited inaugurated a nine-member Board of Directors in Abuja on 14 October 2026, according to statements from the company.
The board is chaired by Medipool's founder, Dr. Oluwaseun Abiola. Ms. Kafayat Babalola, the organisation's chief executive, sits on it as an executive director, alongside Pharm. Cornel Eneyi Akpandara, who holds the title of chief pharmaceutical officer.
The other members are Mr. Obinna Ukachukwu and Ms. Lolade Awogbade as non-executive directors, and Dr. Abdu Mukhtar, Mr. Martins Olajide and Prince Henry Erimodafe as independent directors. Ms. Hadiza Bako is acting company secretary.
Why it matters to patients
Medipool's job is to pool the orders of a health system that buys in scattered pieces, so that government hospitals can negotiate better prices and get their supplies on time. It also promises to check the quality of what is bought and to create demand for medicines made inside Nigeria.
The Federal Executive Council approved the arrangement as a public-private partnership. The company describes itself as an independent platform that works with federal, state and local governments, regulators, development partners and drug makers.
For ordinary Nigerians, the stakes are the price and availability of medicines in public facilities. If bulk buying works, the thinking goes, hospitals pay less and shelves stay stocked. It is also meant to feed into the government's wider health reforms and the push for universal health coverage.
Abiola said the board exists to keep the organisation answerable for that mandate. "An organisation with a mandate of that kind must be held to account, and that is what this Board is for," he said at the inauguration.
He said the board would set up governance and controls that the federal government, state partners, development partners and the public expect, and would hold management to the standard the model was built for.
What happens next
The board now takes over oversight as Medipool moves from being set up into full operation. How quickly cheaper, more reliable medicine supplies reach public hospitals will be the test of whether the model delivers.
