Emma Okonji
After a successful launch of Konga Travel, a revolutionary omni-channel travel booking agency, the management of Konga, has confirmed plan to launch an integrated and cost-effective health project across Nigeria.
The move is to better meet the needs of the served, unserved and under-served with genuine drugs promptly, through the acquisition of a pharmacy chain.
The Co-CEO at Konga, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, who made the disclosure, said Konga remained passionate about reducing the cost of health service delivery in Nigeria and beyond.
Negotiations are believed to have reached an advanced stage for the ambitious project which is expected to be launched by third quarter of 2019.
According to Ekeh, “We have a passion to reduce the cost of last mile delivery of genuine drugs. We have started investing in world-class laboratory equipment that will re-certify drugs delivered through our pharmacy chain.
“Health services delivery in Nigeria is still very expensive and beset with challenges bordering on access and speed of delivery to users in both urban and rural centres across the country.
“We intend to change this narrative by extending our retail revolution to this very critical sector.
“We have all the necessary approvals of the Konga Board to launch the most integrated genuine drug availability and delivery project by the third quarter of this year. We already have a commitment of a huge amount from a foundation (name withheld) to subsidise the cost of last mile delivery to some classified persons and organisations.
“We also have approval to import digital laboratory equipment to test some batches of drugs supplied to our pharmacies nationwide by manufacturers and distributors to make sure they meet global standards.
“We consider this as purely not a commercial rollout because there is social content to it. We are going to partner with stakeholders up to the village level to make sure this happens.
“The roadmap to our quality health project is clear and we are sure it will be a rewarding experience for Nigerians. We will release more information in the month of August but rest assured that, the technology that will drive the network is ready and certified.”
Acquired by the Zinox Group from previous owners, South Africa’s Naspers and Swedish investment firm, AB Kinnevik in January 2018, Konga has undergone a huge transformation that has seen its value grow astronomically over the past 12 months.
The company, widely projected to become the first e-Commerce venture to turn profitable on the African continent, has creatively resolved some of the biggest challenges that has hobbled other players in the Nigerian and African e-Commerce space, including logistics, payment, warehousing, last mile delivery, product quality and customer satisfaction, among others.
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