An impressive 2456 pharmacies have been onboarded on the National E-Pharmacy Platform, representing a major milestone for the digital platform and for Ghana.
The nationwide e-pharmacy platform, otherwise known as e-pharmacy, is a platform of registered pharmacies, which allows the Ghanaian public the ease of uploading and buying prescribed medicines on the platform and getting them delivered to their locations, once they register on the platform with their Ghana card.
The e-pharmacy is part of the government’s agenda to digitise public services, and its full operationalisation was as a result of a collaboration between the Office of the Vice President, the Pharmacy Council and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana.
In 2019, Vice President Bawumia 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 first in Africa.
The platform went live in January this year, after it was launched in July 2023 by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and piloted for about six months.
Ghana’s national scale e-pharmacy platform, is the first of its kind in Africa, and with over 2000 pharmacies onboarded, it further expands the number of pharmacies on the digital platform.
HOW IT WORKS
After registering on the e-pharmacy platform with a Ghanacard, any prescription can be uploaded onto the platform via mobile phone through https://www.gnepplatform.com/ (or through a USSD code).
The platform enables subscribers to find out which pharmacies are close to them, and whether they have the medicines they are looking for.
Subscribers are also able to compare prices of medicines across different pharmacies. Using your mobile phone, you are able to order the medicine, pay for it, and have it delivered at home, or your location through a digital address or pick it up.
The authenticity of drugs are also guaranteed because Ghana National E-pharmacy Platform is integrated with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) platform.