Merck counts on Africa for Growth

Merck, a leading science and technology company, has announced that it plans to considerably expand its presence on the African continent over the next five years and is counting on the region’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovation power for growth.

“Merck is committed to supporting healthy families, healthy communities and healthy economies in Africa,” Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of Merck, said at a press conference in Johannesburg today. “We intend to more than double our workforce in Africa and we also aim to more than double our sales on the continent by 2020.”

The company currently has around 400 employees across ten African countries and aims to increase this number to around 1,000 by 2020. Merck’s largest location is South Africa, from where the company also steers business in South-East Africa including Kenya, Angola and Mozambique. Merck’s sales in Africa will climb to around € 200 million in 2015 and are expected to reach € 500 million by 2020.

In Life Science, Merck intends to expand its presence in Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, and Angola. This business offers a range of more than 300,000 products globally to help facilitate life science research and pharmaceutical production by clients in academia and industry.

Merck has delivered healthcare services in Africa since 1897. With a population rising faster than in any other global market and a growing middle class, the company is increasingly tapping into the continent’s innovative spirit to create health awareness and help respond to unmet medical needs. The Group’s Executive Board visited ten African countries this week to underscore its commitment to and growing importance of the continent.

“Africa currently has around 1.1 billion inhabitants,” Kley said. “This figure is expected to increase tremendously, reaching at least 2 billion people by 2050. Africa not only has the world’s fastest-growing population, but also a growing middle class. With our portfolio of healthcare and life science products, we are perfectly positioned to help address the needs of the people of Africa.”

In addition to selling products in Africa, Merck also aims to tap into the continent’s potential for cutting-edge innovation, which can shape Africa’s future and inspire solutions to tackle global challenges. Among other things, Merck has started an online and mobile platform for diabetes risk assessment, apps for diabetes and fertility patients and a mobile platform for doctors, all of which were developed in Africa.

“The entrepreneurial spirit in Africa and the creativity to come up with out-of-the-box solutions are simply amazing,” said CEO-elect Stefan Oschmann, who will become CEO in April 2016. “In a world that is increasingly shaped by digital solutions, this innovative spirit is enabling Africa to spearhead technological solutions in areas such as e-health, mobile banking or community information.”