Nigerian health startup seeks to help pharmacies make profit, improves platform
A Nigerian healthtech startup, Remedial Health, has launched an updated version of its app to aid healthcare businesses in Africa, drive growth, make better decisions, and subsequently, increase profitability.
The new app, which should serve as an operating system (OS) for neighborhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) in Africa, even includes a digital PoS and barcode scanner.
These features will make payment collection easier, provide virtual business accounts to accept payments, track product sales, enable seamless management of multiple stores with a store-switch feature, and provide inventory management solutions for efficiently restocking and identifying short-dated products.
Techpoint Africa reported in August 2023 that Remedial Health raised $12 million in Series A funding, in order to expand its services and support the delivery of targeted financial services to empower businesses in the pharmaceutical sector.
The pharmaceutical market in Africa is expanding rapidly due to increased demand for low-cost, accessible healthcare solutions.
According to an African corporate data and engagement platform, Asoko Insight, Africa’s demand for pharmaceutical products is expected to more than double to $63 billion by 2030, with a total market value of $56 billion to $70 billion by the decade.
PPMVs are estimated to account for 85% of retail medicine sales in the African pharmaceutical industry. However, they struggle to run their operations effectively and profitably due to a lack of appropriate digital sales and inventory management tools.
To address this, the startup confirmed, “Starting in Nigeria, healthcare businesses can access vetted medicines and manage their sales and inventory on one easy-to-use platform, freeing up time and capacity to effectively serve their customers and communities.”
Simultaneously, manufacturers’ reliance on paper-based inventory and sales management processes leads to limited empirical insight into customer behavior, preventing informed decisions.
The updated Remedial Health app, however, will provide manufacturers with consolidated, real-time market data to boost profitability and improve decision-making across the value chain.
The app also offers data analytics to help with decision-making and thorough financial reporting for managing profit and loss.
CEO and co-founder of Remedial Health, Samuel Okwuada, acknowledged that neighborhood pharmacies and PPMVs are the front lines of healthcare delivery in Africa and that these providers have been left to fend for themselves to be effective and profitable.
The startup plans to provide these providers with the necessary tools to manage daily operations and keep their practices running smoothly.
