The Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC) has shut down three herbal medicine shops in Cape Coast for failing to renew their operating licences, with some reportedly expired for as long as four years.
The affected facilities are Pennah Herbal Shop, Dank Natural Healthcare and God is Able Herbal Centre.
The closures form part of a nationwide enforcement exercise aimed at ensuring that herbal medicine practitioners comply with regulatory requirements and protect public health.
Nicholas Annan, the Council’s Compliance, Enforcement and Inspection Officer, disclosed this during an inspection of herbal medicine facilities in Cape Coast.
He said the exercise was intended to verify the validity of licences and assess operators’ compliance with the rules governing the sector.
According to him, some affected businesses continued operating for three to four years after their licences expired without renewing them.
Mr Annan said the operators had been directed to report to the Council’s office to regularise their licences before they could resume business.
He added that the Council would conduct follow-up inspections to confirm that the affected facilities had met the requirements before reopening.
Mr Annan stressed that the enforcement exercise was not intended to frustrate practitioners but to ensure that herbal medicine businesses operate within the approved regulatory framework.
He said the Council would continue monitoring to prevent operators from doing business with expired licences.
Although the current compliance team was operating in Cape Coast, he noted that similar inspections were taking place in other regions as part of the broader nationwide campaign to improve compliance in the traditional medicine sector.
