Konga diversifies, eyes acquisition of pharmacy chain

After a successful launch of Konga Travel, a revolutionary omni-channel travel booking agency, the management of Konga, Africa’s e-Commerce giant has confirmed plans to launch an integrated but cost-effective health project across Nigeria to better serve the served, unserved and under-served with genuine drugs promptly through the acquisition of a pharmacy chain.

Negotiations are believed to have reached an advanced stage for the ambitious project, which will launch by third quarter of 2019.

According to Co-CEO, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, who confirmed the development, Konga is passionate about reducing the cost of health service delivery in Nigeria and beyond.

“We have a passion to reduce the cost of last mile delivery of genuine drugs. We have started investing in world class lab 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 subsidize the cost of last mile delivery to some classified persons and organizations.

“We also have approval to import digital lab 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,” he disclosed.

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.