Liberia: Liberia Launches National Census of Pharmaceutical Outlets to Strengthen Regulation

What the report says

Liberia’s Pharmacy Board, the Liberia Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Authority and the Pharmaceutical Society of Liberia have launched a nationwide census of pharmaceutical outlets, according to The New Republic Liberia, distributed by AllAfrica. The exercise is designed to build a reliable database of pharmacies, medicine stores, importers, wholesalers and other medicine-handling premises across all 15 counties.

The effort is being rolled out in phases, with Montserrado County first and the remaining counties to follow. Officials said the census will rely on standardized forms and digital tools to collect and verify information, with the goal of improving oversight, transparency and public health protection. The agencies want a clearer picture of which outlets are operating and whether they are properly registered.

At the launch in Monrovia, Liberia Pharmacy Board head Dr. Menmon P.Z. Dunah described the census as a step toward stronger accountability in the sector. LMHRA Managing Director Luke Bawoo said the country has had separate lists for different types of pharmaceutical businesses, but not a single complete registry. He added that a centralized system could help planning, resource allocation and staffing, and said the authorities are also considering broader regulatory reforms, including decentralizing services outside the capital.

The article presents the census as a foundational move for pharmaceutical regulation in Liberia. It also reflects wider public-health concerns common to medicine supply chains, especially where unregistered outlets may be operating, though the publisher did not provide independent verification of the scale of that issue.