Manzini – Pharmacy students at Southern Africa Nazarene University got a front-row look at how medicines, vaccines and medical supplies move through Eswatini’s public health system on Thursday, 28 May 2026, when the university’s Department of Pharmacy hosted a guest lecture in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
The lecture, titled “Overview of Public Health Supply Chain Systems in Eswatini,” was delivered by Mr Denis Okidi and covered the full journey of health commodities from planning and procurement through to warehousing, distribution and delivery across the public health system.
Students were taken through key areas including quantification, inventory management, data use, financing and sustainability, as well as the current challenges affecting public health supply chains in the country. The session also gave them a clearer picture of the roles played by the Ministry of Health, Central Medical Stores, health facilities, development partners and pharmacy professionals in keeping essential medicines available.
A central message running through the lecture was that health programmes cannot succeed without reliable access to health commodities, a reality that places pharmacy professionals at the heart of the country’s health system rather than simply behind a dispensing counter.
The lecture was hosted under the Faculty of Health Sciences and forms part of SANU’s broader effort to strengthen preservice pharmaceutical education by connecting classroom learning to the practical realities of Eswatini’s healthcare system.
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