Why Pharma Tycoon, Stella Okoli Is Stepping Back

BY FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

Almost five decades after floating a small chemist’s store in the mid-income neighbourhood of Somolu, Lagos and nurturing it into a multi-billion naira drug manufacturer named Emzor Group, 82-year-old Dr Stella Chinyelu Okoli has decided to relax a bit, take a step back for a new generation to carry on.

The Nnewi, Anambra State-born pharmaceutical tycoon announced she has stepped down as group managing director of the drug maker and handed day-to-day control to Uzoamaka Ezeoke, her United States-trained pharmacist daughter, who has been Emzor’s executive director for general duties, human resources and finance.

The handover comes as Emzor prepares to start making active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the chemical compounds that give medicines their effect.

Despite facing systemic barriers and discrimination for years, Okoli has continued to break through glass ceilings, being at the forefront of innovation and business success and paving the way for future generations. While Uzoamaka now fully runs the company, Okoli remains founder and chief executive.

Spotlight learnt that for some years now, Okoli has been grooming Uzoamaka, her cerebral daughter, to be part of the running of the leading indigenous multi-billion naira drug manufacturer. And Uzoamaka has not faltered. She has brought verve into the group with support from her husband, Marcel Ezeoke, with whom they returned from the United States to help Okoli revive the empire.

Right well into her 80s, this hardworking enterprising amazon has been untiring as she engaged in various mega industrialisation projects. Her recent one is the N35 billion Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) manufacturing plant in Sagamu, Ogun State.

Despite the significant investment risks associated with manufacturing, especially pharmaceutical products in the country, Okoli put all she got into the new multimillion dollar plant —a World Health Organisation compliant and West Africa’s largest API facility— occupying more than 60 hectares of land.

Emzor is the first in sub-Saharan Africa to locally produce the APIs — almost all the active ingredients used by Nigerian drug makers are imported, mainly from India and China. This leaves manufacturers exposed to currency swings and supply disruptions.

Emzor is starting with ingredients for antimalarial drugs before moving to HIV medicines and other essential treatments.

With the capacity to produce 400 million metric tonnes of quality APIs annually, and creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs, the Emzor’s state-of-the-art API Complex will boost Nigeria’s healthcare system significantly, boost government revenues in taxes, and serves as a significant contributor to Nigeria’s GDP growth.

Okoli’s company now produces more than 140 products, from painkillers and antimalarials to antibiotics and vitamins, and its Emzor paracetamol is one of the best-known medicine brands in Nigeria.

With the Sagamu API Complex in full swing, Okoli, one of Nigeria’s wealthiest women, has accomplished another huge task and now feels it necessary to pass the baton to the new generation to take Emzor to another level.