GHANA – mPharma has announced their partnership with Absa bank Ghana to launch Absa Mutti, a platform that will allow Absa’s 40,000 customers to have access to Mutti health membership benefits.

This partnership builds up to mPharma’s vision of building an Africa that is in good health through their services.

Mutti platform enables subscribers to purchase high-quality medications at lower prices through flexible payment terms, a payment plan that reduces the high upfront cost that patients have to make before they receive their medications at pharmacies.

Mutti is an initiative by mPharma, a technology-driven healthcare company that specializes in vendor-managed inventory, retail pharmacy operations, and market intelligence serving hospitals, pharmacies, and patients.

Founded in 2013, venture-backed, and headquartered in Ghana, it has expanded its operations to four other African countries, namely Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, and Rwanda, and currently has a network of over 300 pharmacies serving more than 100,000 patients each month.

In 2019, mPharma acquired Kenya’s second-largest pharmacy chain Haltons, and in March this year, entered a new franchise agreement with Belayab, which will see Haltons launch in Ethiopia, mPharma’s sixth market in Sub-Saharan Africa and third in East Africa.

Through the franchise, mPharma and Belayab Pharmaceuticals opened two operational pharmacies in Addis Ababa.

Each pharmacy launched offers Mutti to patients in Ethiopia. Patients will benefit from discounts on their drugs and financing options that can help alleviate the costs of healthcare.

Mutti particularly favors uninsured patients in Ethiopia who pay out-of-pocket for their medication and therefore bear the brunt of high drug prices.

In 2015, Stanford reported that fewer than 50% of Africans have access to modern health facilities. Many African countries spend less than 10% of their GDP on health care.

African countries, thus, have to embrace technology to close the health care gap, and private-public partnerships can help with that as is the case with mPharma.

The global e-health market was valued at $74,476.4 million in 2019, and is projected to reach $2,30,640.4 million by 2027 at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2020 to 2027, according to allied.

The growth of the global e-health market is majorly driven by increase in government initiatives supporting the use of e-health solutions and services, surge in need to manage regulatory compliance through use of e-health solutions, and dearth of healthcare professionals.

However, reluctance among medical professionals to adopt advanced e-health solutions and high cost of deployment and maintenance of e-health solutions are likely to hinder the market growth.