The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has unveiled its Community Pharmacists Assessment and Career Progression Institute (CPACPI) framework at the 84th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Montreal, Canada.
The presentation, which took place during the four-day congress from August 30 to September 2, 2026, showcased Nigeria’s efforts to reform and strengthen community pharmacy practice on the global stage.
The congress, themed “One Health, One Pharmacy – Bridging Science, Practice, and Education,” brought together pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, educators, healthcare professionals and industry leaders from across the world.
The framework was presented on behalf of the ACPN by its National Chairman, Pharm. Ambrose Igwekamma Ezeh, who described CPACPI as a strategic initiative designed to enhance professional development and establish a sustainable workforce for community pharmacy practice.
Ezeh said the initiative was aimed at going beyond academic qualifications to develop a resilient workforce capable of providing high-quality primary healthcare services.
“Our mission through CPACPI is not merely to create an academic milestone, but to build a resilient, sustainable workforce capable of delivering world-class primary healthcare,” Ezeh said.
The ACPN introduced CPACPI in 2025 to address the lack of a structured, competency-based career progression pathway for pharmacists practising in community settings.
The initiative seeks to broaden the role of community pharmacists beyond traditional medicine dispensing by promoting clinical competence, continuous professional development, mentorship, digital health integration and quality improvement.
A study presented alongside the framework, titled “The Implementation Gap: Perceived Barriers and External Threats to Community Pharmacists’ Participation in a Career Advancement Scheme in Nigeria,” examined the experiences of 182 practising community pharmacists across Nigeria.
The study identified workload pressures, limited time for professional development, and the high cost of training and certification as major obstacles to pharmacists’ participation in career advancement programmes.
It also identified weak regulatory enforcement as the most significant systemic threat to community pharmacy practice. Illegal medicine outlets and growing competition from patent medicine vendors were also highlighted as major concerns.
The findings showed that more than three-fifths of respondents believed the demands of their daily practice restricted their ability to participate regularly in career advancement programmes.
The study further revealed that younger and mid-career pharmacists with fewer than 20 years of professional experience were significantly more concerned about the financial cost of professional development than their more senior colleagues.
Ezeh said the ACPN was addressing the concerns through targeted interventions incorporated into the CPACPI framework.
According to him, the association plans to introduce tiered and subsidised professional development grants to ease the financial burden on younger pharmacists. Flexible, self-paced digital learning programmes would also enable practitioners to acquire additional competencies without substantially disrupting patient care.
He further called for stronger collaboration among relevant government agencies to tackle illegal medicine outlets and unaccredited vendors, stressing the need to protect professional standards and safeguard patients.
A key feature of CPACPI is its five-tier career progression structure, comprising Community Pharmacist, Senior Community Pharmacist, Community Pharmacy Specialist, Community Pharmacy Senior Specialist and Community Pharmacy Consultant.
Advancement through the various levels would be based on clearly defined professional competencies, practical experience and continuous professional development rather than length of service alone.
The ACPN also used the international platform to advocate greater recognition of accredited community pharmacies as private-sector primary healthcare facilities.
Ezeh called on government authorities, policymakers and national health agencies to formally recognise qualified community pharmacies as primary healthcare providers within the private sector.
He noted that community pharmacies remained among the most accessible points of healthcare for millions of Nigerians and should therefore be integrated into the country’s primary healthcare system and health insurance architecture.
According to him, such integration would widen access to essential healthcare services, improve patient outcomes and ease the burden on overstretched public health facilities.
Ezeh stressed that the effectiveness of CPACPI would depend largely on sustained collaboration among regulatory agencies, professional associations, policymakers and other stakeholders.
He identified regulatory backing, affordable access to professional development, measures to reduce workload constraints and stronger enforcement of market standards as essential to the long-term sustainability of the initiative.
The ACPN said the presentation at the international congress demonstrated that innovative responses to healthcare workforce challenges could emerge from developing countries and offer valuable lessons to other low- and middle-income countries.
