The Traditional and Alternative Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), an agency of the Ministry of Health, has embarked on a nationwide enforcement exercise to clamp down on illicit activities of some practitioners.

The exercise had become necessary to flush out unlicensed and uncertified practitioners who are operating in violation of Traditional Medicine Practice Act 2000 (Act 575) as well as to ensure safety and the efficacy of traditional medicine for public consumption.

Mr Oliver Kwame Nornyibey, Public Relations Officer of the Council who announced this on Thursday at a press briefing in Accra, stressed that it is an offence under Act 575 of 2000 for any person to produce herbal medicines for sale without registering with the Council.

He added that it is an offence to own or operate any premises as a practitioner without registering with the TMPC.

Mr Nornyibey said: “Similarly it is an offence to own, operate or practice without holding a license issued by the Council.”

He told journalists that the enforcement team had on Thursday afternoon locked up the facilities of some practitioners in some suburbs of Accra.

They included Fountain Herbal in Mamprobi, Jogral Herbal at Chorkor and Sasem Herbal at Bubiashie.

Mr Nornyibey appealed to the genuine practitioners to take the necessary steps to get licensed and certified by the TMPC.

He said according to the World Health Organisation, more than 70 per cent of rural folk’s accessed herbal medicine and products.

Mr Nornyibey underscored the importance of weeding out the “bad nuts’ from the traditional and alternative medicine practice industry to ensure safe and efficacious public consumption.