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Beyond the Stock Card: Assessing Advanced Inventory Monitoring Practices among Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Personnel in Four States of South-South Nigeria
Subject area: Biological & Medical Sciences · Area of research: Supply Chain of Pharmaceuticals
Abstract
Inventory management is frequently reduced, in health-systems research from sub-Saharan Africa, to a single question of which recording medium a facility employs — a stock card, a ledger, or a computer. This framing overlooks the substance of what a functioning inventory system actually requires its custodians to track: current stock on hand, historical consumption, losses and adjustments, supplier lead times, minimum and maximum stock thresholds, shipment and handling schedules, and provision for safety stock against demand variability. Using previously unreported items from a 2015 cross-sectional survey of 150 health professionals across registered hospital and community pharmacy settings in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States, this study examined the extent to which these seven monitoring components were practised, and whether their practice varied by state, sector of employment, and area of practice. Current stock levels were the most consistently monitored component (92.0% of respondents reporting always or sometimes doing so), while shipment and handling scheduling was the least (60.7%), with supplier lead-time tracking, stock-level thresholds and safety-stock provision occupying an intermediate band (70.0–74.7%). Chi-square analysis showed that practice of five of the seven components varied significantly by state (p<0.05), including a pronounced Rivers–Cross River divide in the monitoring of maximum/minimum stock levels (96.0% versus 28.0% positive practice) and in the use of computerised stock-keeping methods (χ²=17.8, p=0.038). No significant variation was detected by sector of employment or by area of practice. The findings indicate a hierarchy of inventory practice in which facilities readily track what is immediately visible — current stock — but are considerably less consistent in the anticipatory components of inventory control that guard against stock-outs and wastage, and that this deficit is patterned by geography rather than by institutional type.
Keywords
inventory management, logistics cycle, pharmaceutical supply chain, stock control, nigeria
How to cite this paper
@article{1722752,
author = {Timi Fiekumo Buseri, Tolulope Olajumoke Aremu, Ismail Ayinla Suleiman},
title = {Beyond the Stock Card: Assessing Advanced Inventory Monitoring Practices among Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Personnel in Four States of South-South Nigeria},
journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
year = {2026},
volume = {10},
number = {3},
pages = {226-232},
issn = {2456-8880},
url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1722752.pdf},
abstract = {Inventory management is frequently reduced, in health-systems research from sub-Saharan Africa, to a single question of which recording medium a facility employs — a stock card, a ledger, or a computer. This framing overlooks the substance of what a functioning inventory system actually requires its custodians to track: current stock on hand, historical consumption, losses and adjustments, supplier lead times, minimum and maximum stock thresholds, shipment and handling schedules, and provision for safety stock against demand variability. Using previously unreported items from a 2015 cross-sectional survey of 150 health professionals across registered hospital and community pharmacy settings in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States, this study examined the extent to which these seven monitoring components were practised, and whether their practice varied by state, sector of employment, and area of practice. Current stock levels were the most consistently monitored component (92.0% of respondents reporting always or sometimes doing so), while shipment and handling scheduling was the least (60.7%), with supplier lead-time tracking, stock-level thresholds and safety-stock provision occupying an intermediate band (70.0–74.7%). Chi-square analysis showed that practice of five of the seven components varied significantly by state (p<0.05), including a pronounced Rivers–Cross River divide in the monitoring of maximum/minimum stock levels (96.0% versus 28.0% positive practice) and in the use of computerised stock-keeping methods (χ²=17.8, p=0.038). No significant variation was detected by sector of employment or by area of practice. The findings indicate a hierarchy of inventory practice in which facilities readily track what is immediately visible — current stock — but are considerably less consistent in the anticipatory components of inventory control that guard against stock-outs and wastage, and that this deficit is patterned by geography rather than by institutional type.},
keywords = {inventory management, logistics cycle, pharmaceutical supply chain, stock control, nigeria},
month = {September},
}