myPaddi To Launch E-pharmacy With Koffi Annan Prize Money
One of the recent winners of the International Koffi Annan Awards, myPaddi, a Nigerian-owned Health-tech, plans to launch E-pharmacies with the prize money from the competition. This was revealed during an interview The Ouut had with myPaddi
What is myPaddi
Mypaddi is a pidgin-generated name that directly means “my pal or my confidant. ” It is a subsidiary of MOBicure and a healthwise platform that is designed to establish awareness of sexual reproductivity amongst Nigerian young adults and youths. The platform also provides an interactive feature, whereby the users can privately communicate with a medical doctor or a counsellor. The initiative is targeted at creating a safe space for individuals to talk about their health and sexual issues. The platform also makes sexual health products discreetly available for purchase, thereby promoting sexual protection and education within its community.
The initiative was launched in 2018 by two Nigerian friends, who are also medical doctors, Dr Emmanuel Owubu and Dr Charles Akhimien. Both doctors established the platform with their foundation in medicine, public health, business and digital and electronic health.
Speaking directly with Dr Emmanuel Owubu, myPaddi scaled in the Koffi Annan awards through team and hard work, while presenting an initiative that is projected to help it reach more people in restricted locations. “What we did was to present an idea that will help us reach more people in rural areas, an idea that will help us expand and scale our offering into more people.”
myPaddi E-Pharmacy
The initiatives presented during the competition included working with pharmacies, and to set up e-service (E-pharmacy) centres where users can have easy access to pick up health products purchased on the platform or directly purchase platform-featured health products at the e-pharmacy.
“One of the major issues users have had has been delivery issues. Packages purchased might not reach the user’s area, or home and also privacy during delivery. These are discreet items that people want to purchase but won’t want others to know about. So we are setting up E-pharmacy centres where you can go and either buy directly or online and pick up at that centre discreetly.”
The E-pharmacy is projected to be a pharmacy with regular pharmacy drugs and SRHDs, (Sexual Reproductive Healthwise Drugs) and products. This helps users save costs on doorstep delivery, and avoid the inability to receive ordered products due to location inaccessibility.
The Kofi Annan initiative received Over Three Hundred and Thirty (330) applications from Thirty-eight (38) African countries. Mypaddi health-tech went against nine finalists while emerging as one of the three selected winners in the completion. The winners went home with the grand prize of EUR250,000 (US$250,000) in grant funding, access to international visibility, and a long-term mentoring program.
Asides the E-pharmacy, mypaddi is also looking to improve technical productivity on its platform and community sensitization among adolescents. ” We want to improve on the app itself, and also increase the number of schools we attend in terms of our school health program, and try to educate more people between the ages of 14-18, providing a comprehensive school health program for them .”
Mypaddi still has a few other product services up its sleeves and intends to launch them in due time.