By Alice Chambers |
Pharmacies across Kenya are beginning to use an AI-powered app called Zendawa, powered by Microsoft Copilot 365. The solution helps individual pharmacists serve more clients while increasing narrow profit margins.
The app, now being used by 820 pharmacies, mostly in the capital of Nairobi and Nakuru, is enabling pharmacy owners to better manage their inventories and reduce losses from expired drugs.
“Before Zendawa, we were losing around 6,000 Kenyan shillings [$45] per month on expired medications,” Dr. Bramwel Othieno, owner of Ryche Pharmacy, in a Microsoft customer story on ‘The digital medicine for pharmacies’. “Since onboarding Zendawa, we have been able to track the short expiries and been able to move them out before they expired, so we have managed to save at least 4,000 shillings.”
Dr. Bramwel Othieno, owner of Ryche Pharmacy
Most pharmacies in Kenya are small storefronts owned and operated by individual pharmacists, serving residents and workers within a short walking radius. For these small, independently owned pharmacies, maintaining healthy profit margins is crucial to staying in business, covering operating costs and investing in better services for their communities.
With Zendawa’s enhanced inventory management, stock takes now take just half a day instead of a full day. This time-saving allows pharmacists to focus more on patient care rather than administrative tasks. Going digital has also expanded reach, bringing shops online and attracting more customers. As a result, minimum daily sales have jumped from 12,000 Kenyan shillings to 20,000 (around $154).
Wilfred Chege, CEO and co-founder of Zendawa
“Zendawa is really championing for easing inefficiencies as well as administrative burdens within the pharmacy ecosystem,” says Wilfred Chege, CEO and co-founder of Zendawa. “There is huge potential for every pharmacist to be a business owner, because we will give them the tools to be able to serve a very wide market without breaking the bank.”