The Ghana National Electronic Pharmacy Platform, otherwise known as e-Pharmacy platform, goes live nationwide today, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has announced.
Ghana’s nationwide e-pharmacy platform, the first of its kind in any African country, and one of the few in the world, is a platform of registered pharmacies, which allows the Ghanaian public the ease of uploading and buying prescribed medicines on the platform and getting it delivered to their locations, once they register on the platform with their Ghanacard.
Announcing the full operationalisation of the initiative on his Facebook page, after a successful six-month pilot, Dr. Bawumia, who spearheaded the e-pharmacy with stakeholders of the pharmaceutical industry, expressed delight at the convenience it will bring to Ghanaians, as well as its expected boost to the pharmaceutical industry.
The e-pharmacy platform, adds to the numerous digitalisation initiatives, which have been successfully implemented in the past six years under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
Key among them are: the digital national identification system (Ghanacard), national digital property address system, mobile money interoperability, universal QR Code, as well as digitisation of governemnt services at the ports, registrar general, DVLA, passport application, and many others.
In the health sector, the e-pharmacy platform adds to the successful medical drone delivery service, which delivers essential drugs in real time through drones to remote parts of the country.
Below is the full Facebook post by Vice President Dr. Bawumia:
In 2019, I challenged the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana to take steps in ensuring that Pharmacy services are digitized through the introduction of a national scale e-pharmacy platform.
The Pharmacy Council took up the charge (with coordination from my office) and I was honored to launch the Ghana National Electronic Pharmacy Platform (GNEPP) in July 2022. After, a successful pilot, I am delighted that today, the GNEPP goes live and Ghana becomes the first country in Africa and one of only a few countries in the world with an operational national scale e-pharmacy platform.
With GNEPP, after registering with your Ghanacard, any prescription can be uploaded onto the platform via mobile phone through https://www.gnepplatform.com/ (or through a USSD code). You can find which pharmacies close to you have the medicines and compare the prices of the medicines across different pharmacies. Using your mobile phone, you can order the medicine, pay for it, and have it delivered at home through your digital address or pick it up. You can also be sure that the drugs are not fake because the GNEPP platform is integrated with the FDA platform.
With the National Electronic Pharmacy Platform, Ghana will be part of the new pharmaceutical digital economy to boost pharmaceutical sales and generate revenue. GNEPP will also result in less “Wahala” for Ghanaians in the pharmacy space.
My thanks to the Minister for Health, the Pharmacy Council, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, the NHIA, FDA, Medical and Dental Council, HeFRA, Ghana Nursing and Midwifery Council, Allied Health Professions Council, and the private sector partners for their leadership in making this possible for Ghana. It is a major feat. Ayekoo!
God bless our homeland Ghana.
