Subscribe

Mobile app creates 'virtual pharmacy'

Kgaogelo Letsebe
By Kgaogelo Letsebe, Portals journalist
Johannesburg, 06 Mar 2017

JokkoSante is a mobile app that has created a "virtual pharmacy" where customers can save money and reduce medical waste.

The app allows users to exchange leftover medication for new prescriptions. The app, which has been on a two-year pilot phase in Passy, Senegal, officially announced a partnership with a hospital and four pharmacies in and around capital Dakar.

JokkoSante, which is a play on the French word for health and a word that means "give and receive" in Senegal's most widely spoken language Wolof, allows users to trade-in unused, packaged medicine for points which may go toward the purchase of new medicine when they need it. All of the exchanges are done at health centres or pharmacies by licensed professionals.

According to the founder Adama Kane, the app aims to reach 300 000 families by the end of 2017. "Everyone has a box of unused medicine in their cabinet. The idea is to create a medicine box for the whole community. Most health programmes are focused on providing care, but there hasn't been any ambitious project yet to address the accessibility of medicine. This system is backed up by a Web/mobile application that allows all transactions to be carried out safely with the end-to-end involvement of healthcare professionals and in compliance with the protocols and procedures in force."

Kane says JokkoSante has gained 1 200 members and 3.5 million CFA francs' worth of medicine has been exchanged.

Kane adds that through research, his team found that 75% of the Senegalese families' health spending went on medicine. So the app allows users to send points to family members and friends, while donors can buy points for people in need.

"The project has also been driven by partners such as French telecoms giant Orange, who gain visibility in the process. Companies can target a certain demographic, such as women in their thirties, and if a matching user doesn't have enough points to pay for a prescription she will receive a text saying which company donated to complete her purchase," he explains.

JokkoSante has been making strides and has been named as one of the best 100 African start-ups to invest in by MyAfricanStartup.com. It also plans to expand internationally, reaching six African countries by the end of the year and 15 by 2020.

Share