The act establishes a council responsible for the regulation of traditional and complementary medicines practitioners, defining their roles, issuing those licenses and others. Ministry of Health has in the past noted that the Act will help crackdown on quacks who claim to be traditional medicines researchers and healers by prohibiting advertisement in the media without a license or clearance by the Council.

The Act also prohibits herbalists from using the prefix ‘Doctor’ giving the Minister of Health authority to declare appropriate titles for traditional medicine providers.It is also a requirement under the Act for providers to take herbs to the National Therapeutic Research Laboratory to assess the herbs to know whether they have the necessary ingredients to treat a particular disease. The laboratory works jointly with the National Drug Authority after which the Council can issue a Certificate or license.

According to the National Medicine Policy 2015, nearly 80 percent of the populations in developing countries use traditional medicine as a first call for treatment before visiting a health facility.