The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that Universal health coverage can only be achieved when there is affordable access to safe, effective and quality medicines and health products.
Countries face a range of obstacles to achieving this, including rising prices for new medicines, shortages and stockouts of essential medicines, especially for non-communicable diseases, and the growing problem of substandard and falsified medical products entering the global supply chain.
In Tanzania, Dawa Mkononi is using technology to advance universal health coverage by making pharmaceuticals readily available to pharmacies, hospitals, clinics and drug shops.
Dawa Mkononi which when translated to English means Medicine at your Palms is a Business-to-Business (B2B) pharmaceutical company focusing on innovations around the pharmaceutical supply chain.
According to Christina Mark, the Customer Service Head at Dawa Mkononi, the company’s operations mainly target pharmacies, health facilities, and other registered B2B clients. With, a data-driven approach, the company’s mission is to improve access to medicine distribution and make medicines more available and affordable.
Christina Mark noted that Dawa Mkononi provides an easy platform for medical shops to conveniently purchase medicine and medical equipment thus reducing the time and resources spent on physically looking for these products.
“We have an application available on both IOS and Google Play. When a customer downloads this application, s/he gets to access a variety of medicine and medical equipment available on our platform. After selecting the medicine, and confirming their order, the customers can then pay directly as we have embedded a FinTech-driven payment option on the APP. First-time customers usually prefer paying cash on delivery while returning customers find paying directly from the APP more convenient because it is faster, safer and doesn’t come with any additional charges,” Christina Mark explained.
She added: “The number of customers using our APP has been growing. We started with Dar es Salaam but have since scaled to Mwanza whilst targeting more locations in the future. In Dar es Salaam alone, more than 1,000 active healthcare businesses are purchasing from our APP.”
According to Christina, the main problems faced by those in the medical supplies industry are delays in accessing stock, price fluctuations and counterfeit supplies. These she notes are what Mkononi is addressing as it is faster, price stable and only deals in legitimate products.
This is day eighteen of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative for Tanzania. On this day, we interacted with the Tanzania-founded e-health and FinTech platform Dawa Mkononi. First implemented in Uganda, 40 Days 40 FinTechs is an annual FinTech Innovation initiative presented by HiPipo to recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations who are making significant strides in promoting financial inclusivity through the use of technology.
It is aimed at promoting innovation and collaboration among FinTechs in Africa. The initiative is designed to provide FinTechs and startups with mentorship, training, exposure, and networking opportunities to help them grow and scale their businesses.
“40 Days 40 FinTechs is helping start-ups like ours to learn and incorporate the latest technology in our products and services, which is key to enhancing ongoing inclusion efforts. This initiative is making us more visible to the outside world and popularizing our solutions,” Christina said.
40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Tanzania is part of HiPipo’s broader Include Everyone Program that is generously supported by the Gates Foundation and implemented in partnership with Level One Project, ICTC Tanzania, Ideation Corner, Cyber PLC Academy, INFITX, Crosslake Technologies, NG Films, Founders Academy and Mojaloop Foundation.
The Include EveryOne program is a beacon of acceleration of FinTech Innovation, empowerment for Women in FinTech and a catalyst for investment and development in the ICT sector. Minus 40 Days 40 FinTechs, other initiatives under the Include EveryOne Program are the FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit and Incubator, Digital Impact Awards Africa and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit.
HiPipo is recognized as a premier advocate of digital Innovation and financial inclusion champion, a fervent proponent of the #LevelOneProject. HiPipo has been at the forefront, actively promoting digital innovation, Instant, Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS), and DFS across Africa. With a legacy of advising, mobilizing, and facilitating the adoption of inclusive financial services, HiPipo’s efforts have been nothing short of transformative! For almost two decades, HiPipo has successfully facilitated the inclusive adoption of these crucial services.
