By Davida Spaine-Solomon and Augustine Amos Kargbo
Freetown, 25th September 2026 – Sierra Leone joined the global community on Friday to mark World Pharmacists Day, but the celebration was shadowed by a persistent challenge: the widespread sale of medicines by informal street vendors.
This year’s theme, “Empowering Pharmacists for Healthier Futures,” underscores the growing need to equip pharmacists with the skills, technology, recognition and institutional support required to strengthen patient care and build resilient health systems.
Dr. Moses N. P. Batema, Chief Pharmacist and Director of Pharmaceutical Services at the Ministry of Health, said the profession is evolving beyond the traditional role of dispensing medicines.
“Empowering pharmacists means giving them the competence, systems, technology, professional recognition and regulatory environment to apply their expertise effectively for patients and communities,” Dr. Batema noted.
He highlighted how digital logistics and data management are opening new opportunities for pharmacists to monitor medicine consumption, stock levels and distribution patterns, tools that can help prevent shortages and improve decision-making.
Despite reforms, the informal sale of medicines remains visible across Freetown, with vendors operating around bus parks and busy streets. These vendors often provide medicines without prescriptions or professional guidance, raising concerns about patient safety.
One vendor, who requested anonymity, admitted that arrests by police are common but insisted the trade is a vital source of livelihood. Another seller, Ramatu Lamain, said she learned the business from her aunt and relies on her secondary school education to identify medicines for different illnesses.
Their accounts reveal how informal networks continue to shape access to medicines outside the formal pharmacy system.
Dr. Batema stressed that strengthening the pharmacy profession must go beyond supply and dispensing. Pharmacists, he said, should play a central role in identifying drug-related problems, promoting medicine safety and supporting clinical decision-making.
He linked the profession’s future to Sierra Leone’s 300 Days of Activism for Triple Zero campaign, zero preventable maternal deaths, zero preventable child deaths and zero-dose children.
“The pharmacist of the next decade should be clinically competent, digitally literate, data-informed, innovative, ethically grounded and able to work effectively with other health professionals,” he said.
As Sierra Leone commemorates World Pharmacists Day, the tension between formal reforms and informal medicine sales highlights the need for stronger public awareness and professional pharmaceutical care.
Dr. Batema urged pharmacists to embrace reforms, strengthen their clinical competence, harness technology and contribute actively to antimicrobial stewardship and medicine safety.
“The future of pharmacy in Sierra Leone will not simply happen to us; we have a responsibility to shape it,” he declared.
