015: Gregory Rockson – At the Forefront of Africa’s Digital Healthcare Sector

Young African Entrepreneur

Gregory Rockson is the founder and CEO of mPharma, a digital healthcare company present in Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe. You can connect with him @Rockson2 and @mPharmaHealth on Twitter. MPharma is a digital healthcare company that is helping Africans access high-quality medications. When Greg left for the US to study at university, he wanted to be a doctor. But he quickly realized that he could have a greater impact by studying the business of healthcare on the continent. How often have you gone to a pharmacy which didn’t have the drug that you needed? It’s a problem that is common across the continent and has a devastating impact on Africans, especially those who have illnesses requiring regular treatment, like diabetes, cancer or heart disease. Greg wanted to tackle this problem. Hence, mPharma was born. He built an e-prescription platform that would allow seamless communication between doctors and pharmacies so that patients could get their drugs on time. But he realized that this was the tip of the iceberg. The bigger issue was that Africans can’t afford drugs due to high costs. High quality drugs are expensive. What is mPharma bought the drugs, using its purchasing power to negotiate better prices from the pharmaceutical manufacturers? Partnering pharmacies could then buy the drugs on consignment, drastically lowering costs for consumers. Greg has taken it a step further, developing a product that allows consumers to buy drugs in installments. I love mPharma, which is incredibly innovative and driving real change in Africa’s healthcare sector. Without further ado, here’s my conversation with Greg Rockson.