“We’re leveraging technology to make genuine medicines accessible to Nigerians”, AHA CEO

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Advantage Health Africa (AHA), Mrs. Abimbola Adebakin, a Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), pharmacist, management consultant and technology innovator, is passionate about driving performance improvement in Africa’s healthcare system.

She speaks with Caleb Ohaeri about her organisation’s activities and developments.

What problem was myMedicines created to solve, and what inspired the vision of making quality medicines more accessible to Nigerians?

myMedicines was created around a simple but important conviction: where you live should not determine whether you can access the medicine you need.

We recognised that having a prescription is often only the beginning of the problem. Nigerians may still struggle to find the right medicine, verify its authenticity, afford it or access it conveniently—particularly when medicines are difficult to source or when someone is managing a chronic condition or caring for a family member.

We therefore set out to use technology, pharmacy partnerships and logistics to make access to genuine, affordable medicines more convenient, reliable and responsive.

At its core, myMedicines is about making quality medicines more accessible to Nigerians and, ultimately, to the wider African population by connecting technology with the healthcare infrastructure that already exists within communities.

myMedicines has now delivered medicines across all 36 states of Nigeria. What does this milestone mean to you and the organisation?

For us, this is much more than a geographic milestone. It is evidence that access to medicines can be extended beyond the limitations of physical location.

Reaching customers in all 36 states and the FCT demonstrates that we have built an operating model capable of connecting people to medicines across a country as large and diverse as Nigeria.

It requires several things to work together: technology, pharmacy networks, medicine sourcing, prescription processes, customer service and logistics. The achievement, therefore, represents the strength of the ecosystem we have built around the customer.

Most importantly, it reinforces our belief that health equity is not only about having healthcare available; it is also about making it reachable.

We see nationwide reach as a foundation, not the destination. The next challenge is to make access faster, more affordable, more intelligent and available to many more Nigerians.

Since launch, how many orders have you delivered and customers have you served, and how has this grown over the years?

myMedicines has now delivered more than 1 million medicines across all 36 states and the FCT.

But the numbers tell only part of the story.
We have evolved from an online medicine-ordering service into a broader medication-access platform, supported by a growing network of pharmacies, technology infrastructure, medicine-sourcing capabilities and logistics partnerships.

Our growth has also helped us understand an important aspect of medicine access in Nigeria: the problem is not simply whether medicines exist somewhere in the country. It is whether the right medicine can be connected to the right patient, at the right time and in the right place.

That is the problem we continue to build around.

What percentage of your customers are repeat customers, and what do you believe is driving that level of customer loyalty?

Our current data shows that fewer than 15% of customers purchase only once, meaning that more than 85% have returned to make another purchase.

For us, that is a powerful indicator of trust and usefulness.

The main drivers are convenience, availability and confidence. Customers can search for medicines, upload prescriptions where required, request difficult-to-find medicines and have their orders delivered without repeatedly having to visit multiple physical pharmacies.

This is particularly valuable for people managing chronic conditions and for caregivers who may be purchasing medicines for parents, children or other family members.

Once customers experience a reliable medication-access service, it becomes part of how they manage their healthcare.

Our challenge now is, therefore, not simply retaining customers; it is extending that experience to millions more Nigerians.
What is the average delivery time, and how does this differ between major cities and more remote locations?

In major cities such as Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja, we can typically deliver orders within about two hours, subject to medicine availability and the customer’s location.

Where a medicine is not available within the customer’s city, we activate our wider sourcing network. In such cases, we may source the medicine from Lagos and arrange shipment directly to the customer’s location, with delivery typically taking three to five working days.

This distinction is important because our proposition is not limited to delivering medicines where they are already readily available.

Our value is also in connecting patients to medicines that may be available elsewhere and overcoming the geographical barriers between the patient and the medicine.

What has been the most challenging or remote location you have successfully delivered to?

One memorable delivery was to Abavo in Delta State, where reliable logistics presented a significant challenge.

The order was for a customer’s father who needed his medication. Rather than allowing the location to become a barrier, our team worked with a premium, trusted logistics partner to coordinate the delivery and successfully get the medicine to him. We spared no expense.

For us, stories like this are important because they bring the nationwide milestone to life.
Behind the statistic of “all 36 states and the FCT” are individual people—patients, parents, children and caregivers—who simply need to get the medicine they require.

What role have technology and your logistics network played in enabling myMedicines to achieve nationwide delivery?

Technology is the connective tissue of the myMedicines model.

The customer does not need to know which pharmacy has the medicine or where it is located. They simply search for what they need or submit their request, and our platform and network work behind the scenes to identify sourcing and fulfilment options.

Our model is supported by more than 240 active pharmacy partners and a broader network of over 1,000 pharmacies, giving us access to medicine inventory and pharmaceutical expertise across different locations.

Technology connects the customer to this distributed healthcare infrastructure, while our pharmacy, sourcing and logistics partnerships provide the physical capacity to fulfil the request.

So, we do not see technology and logistics as separate functions. Technology makes the network intelligent and connected; the network makes technology useful in the real world.

This is also what gives the model potential beyond Nigeria—to build scalable approaches to medicine access across other African markets.

With concerns around counterfeit and substandard medicines in Nigeria, what measures does myMedicines have in place to ensure customers receive genuine and properly handled medicines?

For us, access is only meaningful if the medicine is genuine, safe and properly handled.

myMedicines operates through a network of legitimate pharmacy partners and established pharmaceutical channels. We do not simply create an open marketplace where anyone can list and sell medicines. Our approach is to work through a controlled healthcare ecosystem with appropriate professional and prescription processes.

We also maintain structured processes around sourcing and fulfilment, including appropriate handling of prescriptions where required.

Advantage Health Africa is ISO 9001:2015 certified, reflecting our commitment to documented, structured, and continuously improving processes across the organisation.
We recognise, however, that quality assurance is not something you achieve once and declare finished. As our network grows, we continuously review our processes, partnerships and controls.

Our promise is, therefore, bigger than: “We will get you a medicine.” It is: “We will help you access the right medicine through a trusted healthcare network.”

That distinction is fundamental to how we think about building trust in digital healthcare.

Can you share a memorable customer story that demonstrates how myMedicines’ service has made a meaningful difference in someone’s access to healthcare?

One story that has stayed with us came from the 94th Annual PSN National Conference in Port Harcourt, where the Chairman of the Occasion, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, spoke publicly about his family’s experience with myMedicines.

His daughter had taken ill while travelling outside Lagos, and the family needed medicines urgently. Through myMedicines, we were able to use our technology and pharmacy network to source and deliver the medicines to her within a few hours.

What made the story particularly meaningful was that our team subsequently followed up with the family to check whether the medicines had been received and whether they were effective.

Mr. Ajumogobia described the experience as an example of how technology and the profession’s pharmacy infrastructure could work together to deliver genuine medicines when and where they were needed.

For us, that captures the essence of myMedicines.

The technology matters, but the person at the end of the transaction matters more.
Every delivery represents someone trying to get better, a parent caring for a child, a family member supporting an elderly relative or a patient trying to stay on their treatment.

That is why we measure our impact not only in orders delivered, but in the access those orders make possible.

Having achieved nationwide reach, what is the next frontier for myMedicines, and what does the company hope to achieve in the next three to five years?

Nationwide delivery is a foundation. The next frontier is to build a larger, more intelligent and more connected medication-access ecosystem.

We want to move beyond helping people purchase medicines to helping them manage their medication and healthcare needs over time.

This includes making it easier for Nigerians to, find and access genuine medicines, including difficult-to-source medicines. Manage recurring and chronic medication needs.

Support family members and caregivers remotely. Access financing options for medicines where appropriate. Connect medicines with relevant healthcare products and services. Receive medicines wherever they are in Nigeria.

We also see significant potential in partnerships that bring together healthcare, technology and financial services, because affordability is as important to medicine access as physical availability.

The larger opportunity is to use the infrastructure we have built to support better health outcomes, better medicine availability and better visibility into medicine demand.

This is where we believe there is an important opportunity for collaboration with governments, development partners, healthcare organisations, funders and other institutions working to strengthen health systems.

Ultimately, our ambition is not simply to have more app downloads or process more transactions.

It is to build a scalable, trusted and commercially sustainable medication-access infrastructure that can serve millions of Nigerians and, over time, contribute to improving access to medicines across Africa.