At the just-concluded 11th Panel Conference of the Nigeria Retail Pharmacy Business Summit, held in Abuja in early August 2019, over 600 community pharmacists gathered from across the six geopolitical zones. While the event was filled with technical workshops and forward-looking panels, one presentation captured the full attention of Nigeria’s healthcare community.
Founded in 2009 with its inaugural meeting hosted at The First Foundation Place on Opebi Road, Ikeja, The Panel Conference began with a simple yet bold mission: to equip Nigerian community pharmacists with practical business insights that replace trial-and-error strategies with structured entrepreneurial tools.
For its first six editions, the event followed a one-day model. However, as interest surged and demand for deeper business and clinical insights grew, the format expanded into a two-day immersive experience, one that continues to shape the pharmacy business landscape in the country.
The 2019 edition was no different in ambition or impact. With the theme focused on innovative business practices in community pharmacy, one of the most compelling moments of the conference came from Pharmacist Oluwole Odumbo, the Supply Chain Lead at Johnson & Johnson West Africa.
Speaking to a room charged with urgency and optimism, Odumbo challenged pharmacists to take bold steps in bridging Nigeria’s healthcare access gap by embracing tele pharmacy and mobile pharmacy practices as sustainable, equitable solutions.
“We can no longer accept healthcare access as a privilege of geography,” he asserted during his keynote. “With the tools now at our disposal virtual consultations, mobile pharmacy units we can redesign care for everyone, everywhere.”
Breaking Barriers with Tele Pharmacy
Odumbo’s presentation revolved around bold, research-backed interventions that prioritize the underserved: tele pharmacy and mobile pharmacy units. These tools, he argued, are not abstract concepts or foreign luxuries, but pragmatic, scalable solutions for Nigerian realities.
“Imagine a mother in Gashua, Yobe State, needing asthma medication for her son. There’s no pharmacy for miles. Should she suffer because of her postcode?” he posed, pausing as the audience reflected. “With tele pharmacy, she doesn’t have to,” he said.
He noted that while tertiary hospitals and urban clinics often command national attention, it is the primary and secondary tiers particularly in rural and peri-urban areas that are dangerously neglected.
Odumbo’s model proposes that tele pharmacy using telecommunications to provide pharmaceutical care remotely can bridge that divide.
He detailed how pharmacists can conduct real-time video consultations, medication counselling, dosage monitoring, and even chronic disease management, all through secured digital platforms.
“A smartphone is all it takes. The infrastructure is already in the hands of Nigerians we just haven’t empowered the professionals to use it fully,” Odumbo stated.
Mobile Pharmacies: “Access on Wheels”
Complementing tele pharmacy, Odumbo advocated for the rapid expansion of mobile pharmacy vans. These are fitted vehicles staffed by licensed pharmacists, equipped to dispense medications, administer immunizations, and provide in-person consultations.
“Mobile pharmacies are pharmacies with tires and purpose. They go where the problems are,” he explained. “From Makoko to Maiduguri, these vans are the difference between silence and service.”
In his research, Odumbo had mapped the drug desert zones in Nigeria areas with negligible access to formal pharmaceutical care. These included areas within Kogi, Taraba, parts of Enugu, and pockets of Lagos’s informal settlements.
His solution: targeted, route-optimized deployment of mobile pharmacy units supported by state health budgets and private partnerships.
Beyond Access: Continuity of Care
For Odumbo, the conversation doesn’t end at access. He emphasized the importance of continuity particularly post-discharge follow-ups, which are often neglected in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
“Too often, we treat discharge as the end. But for chronic conditions, it’s only the beginning,” he said. “Tele pharmacists can monitor patients’ medication adherence after they leave hospitals, reducing relapses and readmissions.”
He illustrated how diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, three of the most prevalent chronic conditions in Nigeria could be better managed through virtual check-ins.
These engagements, he argued, build trust and create accountability between pharmacists and patients, while reducing transportation costs and system overload.
Cost-Efficiency and Scalability
One of the key concerns raised during the summit was affordability. Odumbo addressed this directly, presenting comparative models that showed how tele pharmacy setups could operate at a fraction of the cost of traditional pharmacies.
“You don’t need a N20 million facility to deliver excellence. You need connection, compliance, and compassion,” he argued.
He also shared preliminary data from his team’s pilot studies, showing that tele pharmacy interventions reduced average patient waiting times by 40% and eliminated the need for travel in 60% of the cases.
Integration into Community Systems
Odumbo’s vision is not siloed. He called for tele pharmacy to be integrated into schools, community health centers, markets, and even religious institutions.
“We cannot expect the people to come to care. We must bring care to the people,” he emphasized.
He outlined how existing partnerships with NGOs, local governments, and school boards can be leveraged to embed pharmacy services into community routines.
With the ongoing challenges of teacher strikes, rural-urban migration, and health worker shortages, Odumbo said, “pharmacists must wear new hats as educators, as coordinators, as first responders.”
A Wake-Up Call to the Profession
His speech, equal parts inspiration and indictment, did not shy away from critiquing the status quo. Odumbo noted the underutilization of pharmacists in the primary care system, calling it a missed opportunity of national proportions.
“We have thousands of pharmacists trained and waiting willing to serve. Yet, many remain underemployed or constrained by outdated regulations,” he stated.
He advocated for legal reforms to allow pharmacists to prescribe a broader range of medications and perform independent medication therapy management.
Collaborating with Tech Innovators
A key part of Odumbo’s proposal was collaboration with Nigerian tech firms. He praised local startups like Helium Health, DrugStoc, and LifeBank as potential partners in building secure platforms for tele pharmacy.
“We don’t need to wait for Silicon Valley. Yaba has the brains. Abuja has the will. Let’s build local solutions with global impact,” he said.
He recommended that Nigerian pharmacists engage in cross-disciplinary learning particularly in digital literacy, data ethics, and app development to future-proof the profession.
Equity as a Professional Mandate
What stood out in Odumbo’s speech was his insistence that equity is not a soft ideal, but a measurable, enforceable outcome. He described his work in developing an “Equity Index” for pharmacy access, drawing from geographic, socioeconomic, and epidemiological data.
“We can no longer claim excellence if it only applies to the elite. The true measure of our impact is how well we serve the forgotten,” he said.
He shared anecdotes of patients in displaced persons camps, urban ghettos, and hard-to-reach villages who had benefited from the early iterations of his mobile pharmacy model.
“We Must Lead, Not Follow”
Odumbo concluded his presentation with a powerful call to action: “The doctor diagnoses. The nurse tends. But the pharmacist ensures the continuity of health. We are the stewards of medication, the last line of defence. In equity, we must not follow we must lead.” The hall erupted in a standing ovation.
Post-Event Reaction
In the days following the summit, several state pharmacy councils initiated reviews of their regulatory frameworks. The Federal Ministry of Health led by Dr. Osagie Ehanire, MD, FWACS expressed decisive interest in collaborating on a pilot program.
Dr. Ehanire, speaking at a related press briefing, remarked: “Our mandate is to improve healthcare access across Nigeria. Pharmacist Odumbo’s tele pharmacy and mobile van proposals align perfectly with our strategy to reach underserved communities.”
He emphasized that the Ministry would expedite policy reviews to integrate these innovations into the Primary Healthcare Revitalization Initiative.
Additionally, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) issued a statement:
“Pharmacist Odumbo’s contributions represent a pivotal shift toward accessible, equity-driven pharmacy care in Nigeria. We support exploring tele pharmacy and mobile services in collaboration with the FMOH.”
Looking Ahead
For Odumbo, this is only the beginning. In informal remarks after the event, he reiterated his long-term vision: “If in five years, every LGA in Nigeria has access to a pharmacist physical or virtual, I will consider that a win for the profession, and more importantly, a win for the people.”
His message remains clear: innovation must be grounded in service, and service must be shaped by empathy. In a nation of over 200 million, with gaping inequalities in healthcare delivery, Odumbo has given the pharmacy profession a bold blueprint for leadership, equity, and impact.
“We are not just dispensers of medication,” he said as he stepped off the stage. “We are dispensers of justice one prescription at a time,” Odumbo said.
