PHARMAFAST

It addresses the difficulties in locating pharmacies that are closer to our neighborhoods, where to purchase a particular drug at a given price, and pharmacies that operate at night. 

We are working on a Mobile Application called “PHARMAFAST” where people will be able to locate nearby pharmacies, know the exact pharmacies where to buy their medicines at a given price, and pharmacies that opens till dawn.

The rate of morbidity increase in Cameroon and Africa at large today is as a result of delays in obtaining drugs on time for users. This has left many families stranded in pharmacies and even when the drugs in question are found, patients still go empty handed due to transportation incurred searching in one pharmacy to another. These will ease and reduce the stress many go through when in need of medicines from pharmacies. 

In Cameroon alone, there are about 10 million families in need of medicines due to unhealthy conditions and out of these population, about 80% are low-income earners who finds it difficult acquiring medications of good quality from reliable and legal vendors. With the limited financial resources at their disposal a lot still face the challenges about important information when they are in need of medicines. This is because there is a total lack of communication among pharmacies, health institutions and patients. Since urban dwellers do not know the exact drug stores where they could purchase their medications at a given price as well as pharmacies that operate during late hours. As a result, they usually moved from one pharmacy to another searching for drugs and the negative effects resulting from the mentioned situation is a call for concern. These have not only increased the cost on the part of patients since moving from one drug store to another requires paying extract taxi fare and time wastage, many have died and some have had other health complications due to delays in taking their medications on time.  

 I once witnessed a poor widow crying in front of a pharmacy because she was unable to buy the medications prescribed for her 8 years’ daughter and I was so disturbed seeing a young woman full of energy shading tears in public. I approached her to know exactly the reasons for her misfortune. She said ‘’my child is in the hospital in a very difficult state and I am unable to purchase the medicines the Dr. asked me to buy because I have spent half of the money on transportation moving from one pharmacy to another searching for the drugs”. This prompted me to go into facts finding mission where I discovered that it is a common phenomenon many go through in obtaining drugs from pharmacies. PHARMAFAST had carried out a market survey with health practitioners, pharmacies as well as the general public, finding out if the problems are worth solving and if the solutions we are proposing will solve the challenges. Information gather so far shows that it is a big challenge in the society.

PHARMAFAST which is a mobile application will help to address these challenges and build partnerships between users. PHARMAFAST App is consisting of the following features.

• Country, state/region to be selected by users;
• Language to be selected by users;
• Present location of users, nearby health institutions and pharmacies;
• Medications available in drug stores and it prices;
•  Pharmacies that operate 24/24 for emergency cases.

With PHARMAFAST, users will be able to have first-hand information, with just a click on their smart phones before leaving their locations to buy medications. This will help them to have a clue of the budget needed to buy the medicines. 

PHARMAFAST is proposing a tech-driven solution to the growing African population by leveraging artificial intelligence technology, we are able to personalize the health system through a data-driven, yet, accessible, and scalable way. By contrast, other apps available have lots of limitation and at times not even functional. We shall use innovative technology to bridge this gap which is becoming an increasing need.  

PHARMAFAST is innovative because users would be able to know all the necessary information needed when they are in need of medication before leaving to buy them, which is not the case as many do not know which hospital and pharmacy has what they looking for. 

Our multitasking platform is a software intended to solve the challenges and stress many go through just to purchase medicines from pharmacies, this use of technology makes us highly scalable and accessible to reach a large number of people. We are also working on developing an artificial intelligent personality which will act as a customer’s service assistance to answer users queries, provide them with accurate information at any time as this continues to grow and continuously improve the content through the process. 

 I once witnessed a poor widow crying in front of a pharmacy because she was unable to buy the medications prescribed for her 8 years’ daughter and I was so disturbed seeing a young woman full of energy shading tears in public. I approached her to know exactly the reasons for her misfortune. She said ‘’my child is in the hospital in a very difficult state and I am unable to purchase the medicines the Dr. asked me to buy because I have spent half of the money on transportation moving from one pharmacy to another searching for the drugs”. This prompted me to go into facts finding mission where I discovered that it is a common phenomenon many go through in obtaining drugs from pharmacies. PHARMAFAST had carried out a market survey with health practitioners, pharmacies as well as the general public, finding out if the problems are worth solving and if the solutions we are proposing will solve the challenges. Information gather so far shows that it is a big challenge in the society. Most pharmacies welcomed the idea and are willing to partner with us by providing PHARMAFAST with their data as it will boost their economic activities.

Since our idea is still at the conceptual stage, we hope to serve about 15 million people when we go operational. 

1) Grow to impact at least 15 million families, health and education institutions as well as students in medical schools in Cameroon and beyond;

2) Reduce morbidity rate resulting from delays in obtaining medications from rightful sources;

3) Eradicate the cost incurred by the poor masses when in need of medicines;

4) Content: Establish content partnerships and networks with the public and private structures;

1) Grow to impact at least 15 million families, health and education institutions as well as students in medical schools in Cameroon and beyond;

2) Reduce morbidity rate resulting from delays in obtaining medications from rightful sources;

3) Eradicate the cost incurred by the poor masses when in need of medicines;

4) Content: Establish content partnerships and networks with the public and private structures;

5) Extend PHARMAFAST to other countries to serve more lives

In order for us to expand our projects to other African countries, it needs huge mobilization of resources and other drawbacks be it from our partners, users, government institutions;

Government Policies in some countries to foreign investors;

Piracy of the project;

Poor and unstable internet network in some parts of the country;

lack of access to internet in the rural areas.

1) Partnering with our partners to give product feedback;

2) International expansion: PHARMAFAST has potential to scale massively across the African continent, and would be great to explore this opportunity;

3) Obtain an international patent right to protect the project for a period of time;

4) Invest in capacity building of staffs and volunteers;

5) create excessive advertisement for partners and the population to be aware of the existence of PHARMAFAST;

6) Seek for legal advise from experts and respect state institutions. 

The idea has been conceived and been piloted by volunteers of Better Future For All Association (BFFA), which is a registered social enterprise based in Cameroon, with the aims of promoting youth entrepreneurship, solve societal problems, and to promote the UN sustainable Development goals and look for solutions in solving societal challenges. The relation between PHARMAFAST and the Association is that, the idea was conceived by the founder of BFFA and it falls under the organisation's objectives.  

Better Future has ten members with five board members. Apart from the founder, the rest are part time volunteers. 

PHARMAFAST is made of five active team members who are energetic and passionate to serve humanity. Most of PHARMAFAST team members are social entrepreneurs with different educational background and have at least five years of working experience in the domain such as accountants, engineers, App Developer and bloggers.  

1. The founder of this idea is a social entrepreneur with more than five years’ experience in both nonprofit. He had participated in business/entrepreneurship fellowship training such as the Yali fellowship program, Cameroon Leadership Academic and have taken online courses in the same field.

2. The accountant has a master in business and administration, an HND in accounting and has more than 8 years of work experience. He is also a community leader and a volunteer.

3.  ILO Calistus: He is a software engineer and our technical project manager. Some of his work includes: Parishbulletin, Gaspedall, Active Trac, Uza Eac, Eurocottage, Matchmaking Web App, Videobutler, Mybukka, Autovisie.

3. NDICHO BORIS NFORMI. Boris is a master student in banking/finance and also a blogger. He is the communication officer and marketing agent. He has over 3 years of experience in the field of marketing and communication.

4. GISELE is our project manager. She has 7 years of job experience in project management and procurement. 

5. Nfor Martin is our legal adviser and he is a law expert with over 15 years of job experience. 

No organisation at the moment 

PHARMAFAST will Build around her audience, get feedback from customers and partners. Reach out to expect in the field. A percentage will be charged as subscription fee, some companies shall use it to advertise and also allow for in-App purchases. our vision in five years’ time is to deliver drugs to users at their doorsteps with the use of bicycles, bikes and also to have electronic Automated machine along our major streets where our clients will have access to our services. Also, an Artificial Intelligence Personality online customer service shall be put in place

 For PHARMAFAST to be sustainable, a token shall be charge by pharmacies and hospitals to help us in upgrading the platform and possibly expand the project to other countries. our vision in five years’ time is to deliver medication to users at their doorsteps with the use of bicycles, and bikes. Also, an Artificial Intelligence Personality online customer service shall be put in place. 

We are excited about being part of a peer network with organizations and change makers from diverse social and cultural background who are doing similar work to exchange learning, advice and support. Through Solve’s Global Network, we want to learn from and meet with potential partners within who will be coming from different countries. We are looking to grow our institutional partners national and international but currently do not have networks or exposure globally. Also, given our resourcing requirements to meet our scaling goals, Solve's connections will be invaluable to ensuring access to a broader pool of technical/financial/strategic resources. As young community leaders who are eager to improving the lives of people, we need to build a solid foundation and acquire skills to help us emerge with our projects. If shortlisted for this prestigious opportunity, knowledge gained will be shared with others in our community and the world at large.  

We would like to partner with organisations that are addressing similar challenges and those providing solutions to societal challenges. PHARMAFAST would like to partner in the following ways;

• Impact Measurement Validation and Support
• Media Visibility and Exposure
• Grant Funding
• Peer-to-Peer Networking
• Technology Mentorship

We are not only looking at building a mobile application as we download some on Google play-store which are not functional. PHARMAFAST look forward to building a perfect App whereby users will not find difficulties accessing the platform. This requires at least 12000 to 15000 US dollars and couple with the fact that having a good Application is one thing because if the public is not aware of its existence. Our team has as an obligatory to go into excessive advertisement in all the regions of Cameroon, on the media, printing and distributing of flyers and organizing workshops. Also, we have to respect legal procedures of the country such as taxes and other important documents. To avoid intruders whose job is to pirate people's work, PHARMAFAST will need to obtain an international protection. To serve more lives, we shall expand our project to other African countries. The AI Innovations Prize would be of great important for our team to realize the aforementioned points above if given the opportunity to be among the beneficial.

We are not only looking at building a mobile application as we download some on Google play-store which are not functional. PHARMAFAST look forward to building a perfect App whereby users will not find difficulties accessing the platform. This requires at least 12000 to 15000 US dollars and couple with the fact that having a good Application is one thing because if the public is not aware of its existence. Our team has as an obligatory to go into excessive advertisement in all the regions of Cameroon, on the media, printing and distributing of flyers and organizing workshops. Also, we have to respect legal procedures of the country such as taxes and other important documents. To avoid intruders whose job is to pirate people's work, PHARMAFAST will need to obtain an international protection. To serve more lives, we shall expand our project to other African countries. The Healthy Cities Prize would be of great important for our team to realize the aforementioned points above if given the opportunity to be among the beneficial.

We are not only looking at building a mobile application as we download some on Google play-store which are not functional. PHARMAFAST look forward to building a perfect App whereby users will not find difficulties accessing the platform. This requires at least 12000 to 15000 US dollars and couple with the fact that having a good Application is one thing because if the public is not aware of its existence. Our team has as an obligatory to go into excessive advertisement in all the regions of Cameroon, on the media, printing and distributing of flyers and organizing workshops. Also, we have to respect legal procedures of the country such as taxes and other important documents. To avoid intruders whose job is to pirate people's work, PHARMAFAST will need to obtain an international protection. To serve more lives, we shall expand our project to other African countries. The Innovation for Women Prize would be of great important for our team to realize the aforementioned points above if given the opportunity to be among the beneficial.

We are not only looking at building a mobile application as we download some on Google play-store which are not functional. PHARMAFAST look forward to building a perfect App whereby users will not find difficulties accessing the platform. This requires at least 12000 to 15000 US dollars and couple with the fact that having a good Application is one thing because if the public is not aware of its existence. Our team has as an obligatory to go into excessive advertisement in all the regions of Cameroon, on the media, printing and distributing of flyers and organizing workshops. Also, we have to respect legal procedures of the country such as taxes and other important documents. To avoid intruders whose job is to pirate people's work, PHARMAFAST will need to obtain an international protection. To serve more lives, we shall expand our project to other African countries. The Innospark Ventures Prize would be of great important for our team to realize the aforementioned points above if given the opportunity to be among the beneficial.

Data collected from our partners such as stock of medicines available in pharmacies and hospitals, prices, and others shall be use for the propose it is meant for and not for other activities which could tarnish the image of PHARMAFAST  or our Partners.