MCI Opportunities in Nigeria Series – Part 4 of 7
This post is part of a mini-series exploring market-creating innovation opportunities in Nigeria. Each entry spotlights an overlooked market where innovation could make essential products and services radically more accessible and affordable. This week’s focus: pharmacies.
Pharmacies are often the first and sometimes only point of contact with the health system for many people across Africa. Yet they remain one of the least well-integrated parts of the health care value chain. Even as digital health platforms and clinics have expanded in recent years, pharmacy services have lagged behind—under-regulated, fragmented, and largely informal. For people living in low-income or remote communities, that often means paying high prices for low-quality medicine, relying on drug shop attendants with little to no medical training, or foregoing treatment altogether when trusted options aren’t nearby.
This nonconsumption points to a large but underserved market—one that innovative business models can unlock.
Pharmacies matter for health access
While hospitals and doctors’ offices tend to dominate health care conversations, pharmacies play a pivotal role in actual health-seeking behavior. Across Africa, pharmacies—especially informal ones—account for a substantial share of outpatient care. In Nigeria for example, pharmacies make up about 50% of primary healthcare facilities and provide 70% of registered care visits.
Even though pharmacies serve as a frontline of care for the hundreds of millions who can’t afford or access healthcare, deep structural gaps persist. In Nigeria, fewer than 5% are enrolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme, and over 70% of all healthcare expenses are paid out of pocket. Additionally, the very characteristics that make pharmacies accessible—convenience, speed, no need for appointments—also expose major gaps. Medicines may be counterfeit or substandard. Staff may offer incorrect advice. And where there is little digitization, there’s also limited oversight, poor inventory management, and almost no follow-up or care coordination.
What’s missing is not demand, but innovation that can organize and upgrade the sector in a scalable, sustainable way.
Innovators are already stepping in
A handful of pharmacy innovators are starting to tackle these challenges by transforming pharmacy services into more integrated, systemic, and affordable solutions.
mPharma, for instance, has developed a model that both improves drug availability and ensures quality. Through its Mutti pharmacy network, mPharma retrofits independent pharmacies with digital inventory systems, aggregates demand to negotiate lower drug prices, and rebrands the outlets to signal trust. Its model benefits patients through lower costs and better service, while helping pharmacy owners grow their business under a trusted brand.
Similarly, Lifestores provides a digital platform that connects a network of community pharmacies, health programs, manufacturers and distributors to drive down drug prices, formalize supply chains, and make trusted medication accessible to millions, simultaneously serving both pharmacies and patients.
These approaches demonstrate a common principle: the pharmacy sector needs to be better connected to address nonconsumption. Pharmacies can move from isolated drug shops to components in a more responsive, preventive, and affordable care system that turn nonconsumers—those who today lack access to safe, affordable medicine and health care—into active participants in a health market built to serve them.
The scale and ripples of the opportunity
By expanding access to affordable, genuine medication pharmacies can become a critical driver of health and economic development. If Nigeria were to raise pharmaceutical spending from its current $9 per capita to just $21 per capita—on par with other African economies—the market could grow to a staggering $4.8 billion.
This growth would in turn drive job creation across the ecosystem, with an estimated 186,600 dignified and fulfilling jobs generated. The new roles would span from drug making and quality assurance, to logistics, inventory systems, and community pharmacy management. The broader value chain would include manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy retailers, healthcare providers, and insurance companies each playing a critical role in enabling access. Realizing this market opportunity requires innovation across the pharmaceutical value chain, which isn’t easy, but as shown by mPharma and Lifestores, is possible.
Pharmacies are one of the most immediate, familiar, and powerful levers for improving access to health care. By investing in innovations that integrate this essential touchpoint, millions of people could move from nonconsumption to more reliable and trusted care.
For more of our MCI Opportunities in Nigeria Series, read:
Unlocking Opportunity: A New Vision for Eyecare in Nigeria
Unlocking Opportunity: Diagnosing a Market Gap in Nigeria
Unlocking Opportunity: How Poultry Can Catalyze Prosperity in Nigeria
