Mawuli Pharmacy & Medical Supply, Ltd. is a private enterprise strategically formed to empower the health care providers and consumers with a fully stocked pharmaceutical and medical supply store for the first time in Ghana and the West Africa sub region, improving their health and saving the lives of millions of people.
It is duly registered on 11th February, 2015 at the Registrar-General's Department in Accra with the registration number BN910392015. In the future as part of the vision, we will have sister companies registered in other countries of the region.
With your collaboration, we seek to provide quality health care that will make a difference by improving the health of the people of Ghana and Africa at large.
This proposal seeks to achieve extraordinary improvements in human health by providing a central wholesale pharmacy and 24-hour retail centres in some strategic locations in the capital, Accra and all the regional capitals and densely populated cities of Ghana, where patients can access not only drugs and medical supplies but also some basic grocery items needed at night. We are also proposing a partnership with the government to establish retail facilities in their premises all over the country, with all the drugs that their doctors will prescribe for their patients so that they do not see themselves crisscrossing town in the search of those infrequently prescribed drugs, which in some cases, they never find. A percentage of the profit goes to the government facility in which we operate and this will help strengthen its auto sustainability.
As the experience becomes successful in Ghana we will extend our tentacles to disseminate to the entire continent of Africa where except for South Africa, health care delivery in general, including hospitals, diagnostic tests and pharmacies operate at the lowest levels in the world. The payment capacity of individuals in most African countries is on the increase as most economies develop to enter the lower middle class range. African economies are among the fastest growing in the world. Today the continent is poised to transform the global economic landscape. Annual growth is expected to average 7% over the next 20 years.
We are proposing to your organisation to have a joint venture with us to help solve the deficiencies in the area of drugs and medical supplies not only in Ghana but also in Africa as a whole.
Your organization will leave an indelible legacy and ever be remembered in the annals of history for the good they have done to elevate the quality of health care in Ghana and Africa as a whole.
The Board of Directors of the Mawuli Pharmacy & Medical Supply, Ltd., led by Dr. Emmanuel Yao Voado, MD., the Founder, with the astute collaboration with your organization, will select the Management Committee that will see to the day to day administration of the facilities.
Your financial institution will leave an indelible legacy and ever be remembered in the annals of history for the good they have done to elevate the quality of health care in Ghana.
Ghana is located in Western Africa and borders Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and Togo. This country occupies a total area of 238,533 square kilometers and has a population of approximately 29,786,408 as of January 5, 2019. The population of West Africa is estimated at 387,246,061 people as of January 8, 2019.
Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. Ghana endured a series of coups before Lt. Jerry RAWLINGS took power in 1981 and banned political parties. After approving a new constitution and restoring multiparty politics in 1992, RAWLINGS won presidential elections in 1992 and 1996 but was constitutionally prevented from running for a third term in 2000. John KUFUOR of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) succeeded him and was reelected in 2004. John Atta MILLS of the National Democratic Congress won the 2008 presidential election and took over as head of state, but he died in July 2012 and was constitutionally succeeded by his vice president, John Dramani MAHAMA, who subsequently won the December 2012 presidential election. In 2016, however, Nana Addo Dankwa AKUFO-ADDO of the NPP defeated MAHAMA, marking the third time that the Ghana’s presidency has changed parties since the return to democracy.
Economy:
Ghana has a market-based economy with relatively few policy barriers to trade and investment in comparison with other countries in the region, and Ghana is endowed with natural resources. Ghana's economy was strengthened by a quarter century of relatively sound management, a competitive business environment, and sustained reductions in poverty levels, but in recent years has suffered the consequences of loose fiscal policy, high budget and current account deficits, and a depreciating currency.
Agriculture accounts for about 20% of GDP and employs more than half of the workforce, mainly small landholders. Gold, oil, and cocoa exports, and individual remittances, are major sources of foreign exchange. Expansion of Ghana’s nascent oil industry has boosted economic growth, but the fall in oil prices since 2015 reduced by half Ghana’s oil revenue. Production at Jubilee, Ghana's first commercial offshore oilfield, began in mid-December 2010. Production from two more fields, TEN and Sankofa, started in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The country’s first gas processing plant at Atuabo is also producing natural gas from the Jubilee field, providing power to several of Ghana’s thermal power plants.
As of 2018, key economic concerns facing the government include the lack of affordable electricity, lack of a solid domestic revenue base, and the high debt burden. The AKUFO-ADDO administration has made some progress by committing to fiscal consolidation, but much work is still to be done. Ghana signed a $920 million extended credit facility with the IMF in April 2015 to help it address its growing economic crisis. The IMF fiscal targets require Ghana to reduce the deficit by cutting subsidies, decreasing the bloated public sector wage bill, strengthening revenue administration, boosting tax revenues, and improving the health of Ghana’s banking sector. Priorities for the new administration include rescheduling some of Ghana’s $31 billion debt, stimulating economic growth, reducing inflation, and stabilizing the currency. Prospects for new oil and gas production and follow through on tighter fiscal management are likely to help Ghana’s economy in 2018.
GDP (purchasing power parity): $134 billion (2017 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate): $47.02 billion (2017 est.) (2017 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 8.4% (2017 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP): $4,700 (2017 est.)
GDP - composition, by end use:
household consumption: 80.1% (2017 est.)
government consumption: 8.6% (2017 est.)
investment in fixed capital: 13.7% (2017 est.)
investment in inventories: 1.1% (2017 est.)
exports of goods and services: 43% (2017 est.)
imports of goods and services: -46.5% (2017 est.)
GDP - composition, by sector of origin:
agriculture: 18.3% (2017 est.)
industry: 24.5% (2017 est.)
services: 57.2% (2017 est.)
Agriculture - products: cocoa, rice, cassava (manioc, tapioca), peanuts, corn, shea nuts, bananas; timber
Industries: mining, lumbering, light manufacturing, aluminum smelting, food processing, cement, small commercial ship building, petroleum
Industrial production growth rate: 16.7% (2017 est.)
Labor force: 12.49 million (2017 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture: 44.7%
industry: 14.4%
services: 40.9% (2013 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 9.6 % ( July,2018.)
Africa is the second-largest continent about 30.2 million km2 (11.7 million sq. mi), after Asia, in size and population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and Europe to the north. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos.
The population of Africa is estimated at 1.17 billion people as of 2015 accounting for about 16.7% of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; 50% of Africans are 19 years old or younger. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area and Nigeria is the largest by population.
Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors, as well as later ones that have been dated to around seven million years ago.
History:
At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt. One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.
Climate:
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.
The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert, or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence, where vegetation patterns such as Sahel and steppe dominate. Africa is the hottest continent on earth and 60% of the entire land surface consists of dry lands and deserts.
Politics:
Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. Connected with the Indian Ocean the islands of Africa are the Union of the Comoros, Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Seychelles, and Republic of Mauritius. In the Atlantic Ocean we have Republic of Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. Others are Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, and Eritrea.
The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. The improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations, mainly from China, which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly ending decades of stagnation and decline.
Some seven African countries are in the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world. If you look at countries like Mozambique, Angola, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Togo – all of those markets have shown exceptional growth and real stability and with that you almost get a new investment climate for these countries. This allows you to have a new emerging middle class and with that comes a very vibrant entrepreneurship culture, businessmen or women who want access to technology and to innovate.
Several African economies are among the world’s fastest growing as of 2011. As of 2013, these are some of the Africa countries growing by more than 5.0% in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These are South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, Mozambique, Eritrea, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Gabon, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Mauritania, Niger, Congo, Zambia, Angola, Uganda, Togo, Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya.
Born in 1971 to a Christian family of scarce resources in Tefle, Volta Region, Ghana, he always dreamed of breaking the back bone of poverty through education. At the age of 12, he received a prophecy that he would be going abroad to further his education. In 1985, at age 14, the prophecy was accomplished but not without difficulties. After taking the exams to send students to Cuba, he placed first in his district but was unlawfully replaced by the son of the most powerful politician of the district. A concerned citizen sent him to the office of President Jerry John Rawlings, when he was allowed to participate in the national test in which he became first. This event was indeed a shock to many.
He was in Cuba for 17 years, right from the junior high school to the medical school and subsequently to the postgraduate specialist course of Neurosurgery. While in Cuba as a student, he continued the brilliant academic work; he won many awards including best student in Chemistry at the Cuban National Level Quizzes for 3 consecutive years where students from 35 countries then studied. He wrote an Organic Chemistry book which was meant for the preparation of the high-performance students who aspired to participate in the World Olympiad of Chemistry. He was summa cum laude (first) in all the levels of education including the medical school and the Specialty of Neurosurgery. At the end of the neurosurgical training, he wrote another book in the field of Spinal Surgery called Lumbosacral Discopathies.
When he completed the Neurosurgical course in 2001, the people of Belize found him and took him to that country as they needed Neurosurgical Services which they had never had the privilege of enjoying locally. He performed simple and complex surgeries on many people including the elite of Belize with no surgical mortality in his 5 consecutive years of practice. In the USA, under Dr. Robert Grossman, a well-known neurosurgeon, he worked as a Clinical Research Specialist where he was invited by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons of America to present six papers in their international conferences.
He is Belizean and American citizen by naturalization. After 28 years, he has decided to come back to Africa to help his people as he has come to the convincing realization that he is more needed here than in the United States of America.
Dr. Emmanuel Voado, MD., is a Ghanaian neurosurgeon trained in Cuba. He was the medical doctor who first opened a neurosurgical service in the country of Belize. He practiced there for 5 years before going to the United States where he resided with his family for 6 years before relocating to Africa in September, 2013.
In Cuba, he was directly involved in the educational system for 17 years and impacted by their health care delivery for 11 years which can all be emulated by third world countries like Ghana who have more natural resources and foreign exchange earners than Cuba.
He lived in Belize where he contributed to the health care delivery in that nation. Once in the USA, he was personally impacted by all the good things of the American system.
While in Cuba as a student, he won many awards including best student in Chemistry at the Cuban National Level Quizzes for 3 consecutive years where students from 35 countries then studied. He wrote an Organic Chemistry book which was meant for the preparation of the high performance students who aspired to participate in the World Olympiad of Chemistry. He was summa cum laude in all the levels of education including the medical school and the Specialty of Neurosurgery. At the end of the neurosurgical training, he wrote another book in the field of Spinal Surgery called Lumbosacral Discopathies.
When he completed the Neurosurgical course in 2001, the people of Belize found him and took him to that country as they needed Neurosurgical Services which they had never had the privilege of enjoying locally. He performed simple and complex surgeries on many people including the elite of Belize with no surgical mortality in his 5 consecutive years of practice.
In the US, under Dr. Robert Grossman, a well-known neurosurgeon, he worked as a Clinical Research Specialist where he was invited by the Congress of Neurological Surgeons of America to present six papers in their international conferences.
With the booming economy, health care delivery which is one of the faces of economic growth needs to improve in Ghana. When those who have the resources need to get medical care, they go to South Africa, India, America and other developed countries because there is no facility in the West African sub region to find an appreciable level of quality health care.
Considered a regional model for political and economic reform, Ghana has to appear as a flag bearer of health care delivery not only for its people but also for West Africa as many patients from the sub region flock to Ghana looking for a better medical care. Meanwhile, Ghana itself does not have facilities like those in the developed countries and the countries with emerging economies.
The leading government hospitals in Ghana are not fully stocked with the medications and simple diagnostic tools like sphygmomanometers and glucometers the patients need. This difficulty has the patients stranded in town searching for the medication/diagnostic tool in different pharmacies. Studies on hypertension in Ghana have indicated a crude prevalence between 25% and 48%, using the threshold of 140/90 mmHg with the prevalence higher in urban populations than in rural populations. Evidence also suggests that many Ghanaians living with hypertension are not aware that they have the condition.
With current prevalence reaching epidemic proportions, the World Health Organization (WHO) has predicted that developing countries would bear the brunt of diabetes in the 21st Century. It said available statistics indicated that currently more than 70 per cent of people with diabetes lived in low and middle income countries, with prevalence increasing dramatically in Africa. In Ghana, about four million (15.5%) people may be affected with diabetes mellitus.
One of our major problems in Africa is malaria. A Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) is an alternate way of quickly establishing the diagnosis of malaria infection by detecting specific malaria antigens in a person's blood. RDTs are only available in some few pharmacies in Ghana.
The private clinics/hospitals and other private pharmacies in the country are not interested in investing in all available medications because it is not profitable for them as they argue that there are not many patients demanding for them and they would run at a loss when they invest in those medications. Many times, medical doctors at government hospitals ask the relatives of patients to go crisscrossing town for a medication they need for a patient on emergency basis. If it were a condition that needs prompt medical attention, then the patient’s hope of recovering without disabilities is in jeopardy. Sometimes, in cases of head traumas with cerebral oedema, patients deteriorate or die waiting.
For a patient with subarachnoid haemorrhage due to head injury or brain aneurysm who comes to the hospital late in the night, this is dangerous. All the private pharmacies which are the sources of supply of the nimodipine to these patients, have already closed because apart from the health care facilities with the capacity to admit, no pharmacy in town is open to the public for 24 hours. This condition has claimed the lives of many or rendered them neurologically disabled.
We have problems with medical supplies as well. The hospitals do not have all the supplies they need because the suppliers complain about late payments. Some consumables have to be purchased directly by the doctors from the foreign sources with their own money to perform surgeries. For example, a patient who needs a complex spinal surgery to avoid or improve the condition of paralysis due to a spinal cord injury is in a similar situation because whether the person can pay or cannot pay there is no amount of money that can save his life since emergency treatment is not available in this country. Spinal Surgeons are having difficulties to rescue the few cases they can in these adverse conditions because the supplies like plates and screws and other consumable supplies needed for the surgery are not available in the country at the moment of the need to perform the heroic disability preventing/stabilizing surgery.
The radiologists of the government hospitals sometimes lack films and contrast medium to get x-ray’s done for patients. The foreign personnel who live and work here and those on short visit to the region need the specialized health care facilities at the height of the developed countries to live/travel peacefully so that they do not die due to those emergency conditions whose treatment do not wait for transfer to specialized centres in the developed countries.
The inspiration came from the manner in which many patients fail to have an opportune treatment because of unavailability of the infrequently prescribed medications and diagnostic and therapeutic means which jeopardize the healing process. As a result, we find patients combing the city from pharmacy to pharmacy and medical supplies store to medical supply store in search of the said product.
Therefore, there is the need for a service that will serve to:
- improve the delivery of pharmacy services and medical supplies chain in Ghana.
- have a central wholesale pharmacy with a medical supplies stock where the whole nation can send their retailers for all categories of drugs and medical supplies to be distributed to the retail pharmacy/chemist points.
- establish some key retail pharmacies near private and government facilities that will be able to offer all categories of drugs and medical supplies according to the demand from our consumers so that patients do not crisscross town looking for those drugs and supplies that are not frequently prescribed. These will be located in some strategic locations in the capital, Accra and all the regional capitals and densely populated cities of Ghana.
- get these services on-site where the numerous general practice and specialist physicians are located in need of these services making the needed medications and supplies more accessible.
- make the patients have access to the drugs and supplies not even available up till now in Ghana.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT:
A comprehensive fully stocked pharmaceutical and medical supply with all the therapeutic and diagnostic tools for sale is the way to go. The myopic vision that drugs/diagnostic and therapeutic means not frequently prescribed are not stocked in our pharmacies/supplies stores are what have taken us to this unfortunate reality. We are a country of 29,786,408 of population as of January 5, 2019. If a community pharmacy or a medical supply store will argue that they do not carry a medication or supply because consumers do not frequently require them, a much bigger organization like ours can take advantage of this situation by having them in our retail or our wholesale pharmacy so that upon request it is made available to consumers.
This will permit a more efficient medical attention to patients. It will save cost to patients and save thousands of the lives of both nationals and foreigners who die because they suffer from emergency conditions whose treatment is inaccessible or unavailable at the moment in Ghana.
Most of our retail pharmacies will serve our communities for 24 hours, especially the ones in or near medical facilities or in densely populated areas. They will not only be stocked with drugs and supplies, but also with articles of daily use which are sold in supermarkets so that the consumers can get access to all these things at night when all the supermarkets and pharmacies in town have closed, ours will be open for business. There is no pharmacy of this description in the entire Ghana.
KEYS TO SUCCESS
- Offer quality service to make it the most reliable group of pharmacies in the country by choosing the most qualified and compassionate professionals.
- We will offer 24-hour service, a unique concept in this type of industry in this part of the world. We will also provide household items including grocery with fresh foods, personal care, beauty care, photofinishing and candy.
- Management team has specific industry experience that will apply to their assignment. This is an extremely experienced and well balanced team.
- Our website will be one more way to let to know how the pharmacy is helping to solve health related problems and helping the community as a whole.
- Entering into joint venture with other organizations to help solve the deficiencies in health care delivery not only in Ghana but also in Africa as a whole.
- Our services and products shall be affordable at a competitive price with the local market but with a higher quality of service.
There is a huge market in Ghana for the pharmaceutical and medical supply chain industry, with plenty of profitable business to be had. Only few businesses have been identified as attractive in addition to those market sectors to which Mawuli Pharmaceuticals & Medical Supplies, Ltd. has directed its attention, but none of them is offering a complete/comprehensive shelf of drugs and medical supplies as our company pretends to do. Capturing market share at a profit is definitely achievable if the above five steps are skilfully executed.
TARGET GROUP
We target all health facilities, patients, and consumers seeking for drugs and medical supplies independent of their origin, religion, culture, race, ethnicity and political affiliation.
LOCATION
Accra, the capital of Ghana, is furthermore the anchor of a larger metropolitan area, the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), which is home to about 4 million people, making it the largest metropolitan conglomeration in Ghana by population, and the eleventh-largest metropolitan area in Africa. About 55% of the doctors of Ghana are concentrated in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area. The central Mawuli Pharmacy & Medical Supply, Ltd. will be located in Accra in order to be the point from which we will control and distribute drugs and supplies to the entire nation.
Branches will be located in the major cities of the country and will disseminate to other countries in the region during our growth.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
We will build the central wholesale pharmacy in Accra, which is the capital city of Ghana with other wholesale branches in the regional capitals and the densely populated cities and start retail centres at strategic points of these cities. We will negotiate with the government hospitals who will be one of our main consumers for partnership so that in some cases our facilities can be extended to their premises for the comfort of the patients.
Our pharmacy is grounded on the values of Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence (I CARE) principle.
We believe that the future of medicine depends upon bringing together health care partners in mutually beneficial joint ventures that help them connect, integrate and collaborate.
- This collaboration will provide a comprehensive, fully stocked pharmaceutical and medical supplies with all the therapeutic and diagnostic tools.
- This collaboration seeks to provide quality health care by making our store clients can depend on to improve the health of the people of Ghana and Africa at large.
- This collaboration will facilitate access to an affordable and trusted medical alternatives for patients, organizations and consumers on the Africa market.
- Your organization will offer its world leading, affordable, timely and high quality pharmaceutical and medical supplies for Ghana and Africa at large to access best in class health care facilities.
- This collaboration will continue to create opportunities in Africa thereby increasing market share while improving patient care.
- Increasing the revenue and profitability base of the company for future developments and sustainability.
- Impact investing, as it is a socially conscious form of investing that seeks to generate both a social benefit and a meaningful financial return. It is an investment that intentionally generates sound financial return as well as measurable social and environmental impact and this would help grow the global impact economy, especially that of Ghana, significantly.
- It would create jobs for thousands who will be directly and indirectly involved here at home.
- We would have all the drugs, diagnostic and therapeutic means available in Ghana which has a population of 30 million.
- The government and private partnership would enhance health care delivery.
- It would help save many lives of both our locals and our foreign brothers who live with us or are on a visit.
- Patients will be tremendously helped by avoiding them the pain of combing the city in search of products not readily made available to them.