Pharmacies that have built their operations around mobile applications or software are reaping the gain of an uptick in the volume of retail transactions, thanks to the dire struggle created by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ambition to mop up cash in circulation.
They are using mobile applications such as ‘Bloom PoS mobile’ to capture sales without dependence on the unstable power supply or internet services, providing access to drugs for many who have been forced to use online payment for transactions.
While pharmacies that use Bloom still need to rely on payment systems such as PoS and use bank accounts before their transactions are completed, the app can capture transactions on inventories offline, making access to drug access more accessible and more flexible.
This has primarily shored up sales compared to when only a website link was being used. But the pressure from the cash crisis has served as an additional catalyst for the increased transactions.
“The true impact of the care that pharmacies provide to their communities is immeasurable and we remain committed to helping them boost their revenues as well as their impact in the communities they serve,” Gregory Rockson, chief executive officer of mPharma said in an official document provided to BusinessDay.
Many Nigerians have been left stranded by the persisting unavailability of cash for essential purchases, including drugs and medical consultations. An effective alternative is to make payments through mobile money transfers and point-of-sale systems among other digital means.
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According to analysts, mobile-money firms are poised to benefit the most from the disruption of lack of cash and they will be carrying along other platforms relying on them to drive revenue growth.
With mobile-phone penetration at 117 percent in the country, and set to grow, such as mPharma are also poised to benefit from the surge in digital transactions.
mPharma, a tech-based healthcare company has designed Bloom for Pharmacy Counter Assistants to run on android devices version 8 or higher. It includes the PoS, sales history, and inventory management feature, allowing users to make a sale, view their sales history, and access their inventory as they would on the web application.
Dorinda Misrowoda, product manager of Bloom PoS Mobile said “our goal is to make Bloom accessible to everyone, regardless of their internet or power situation. We understand that frequent power outages can prevent facilities from capturing sales in real-time, so we developed this app to help them overcome this challenge and continue to grow their businesses”.
Forecasts tool
Beyond the upscale access to essential medicines, mPharma also uses Bloom to gather datasets to understand the disease profiles in communities. It also aims to address the inadequate forecasting and poor technology contributing to the drug supply chain inefficiencies which often lead to high drug prices.
To remedy this, Bloom could be deployed to achieve predictive analytics and insights from the data generated from operations such as historical consumption and dispensation data, to forecast future demand.
The insights generated could help governments and other key stakeholders to make informed healthcare policy decisions. It allows for drug stocking and adequate preparation for future demand.
“Bloom helps us to aggregate drug consumption data that feeds into our forecasting models and improves our forecast accuracy by over 40 percent. We have reduced our order-to-delivery timelines by over 80 percent within the last two years and cut waste from product expiration by over 60 percent annually since 2020,” Rockson said.
