abu alumnus Clare Omatseye Managing Director, CHAN Medi-Pharm Limited, speaks - "Capacity Building Is a Critical Part of Our Success Story"

CLARE Omatseye is the Managing Director, CHAN Medi-Pharm Limited, and President, Healthcare Federation of Nigeria- HFN. Several years back she established JNC International Limited to stop the dilapidation of the infrastructure in Nigeria healthcare sector and improve the health status of Nigerians.

Claire is a Graduate of Pharmacy from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and holds an MBA from the University of Navarra -Barcelona Spain. She is an Alumnus of the Lagos Business School and has attended several professional trainings in her field.

A seasoned pharmacist with over 23 years of experience in hospital pharmacy, sales, marketing, regulatory affairs, distribution, business development and strategic management, she has worked in several blue chips pharmaceuticals. She currently sits on the board of other reputable organizations. In this interview, she talks about what inspired her into establishing a pharmaceutical equipment importation company amongst sundry issues. Enjoy!!!

SETTING up a pharmaceuticals equipment importation company

I have a career spanning about 23 years in the Nigeria health sector; I spent 14 years of my career in pharmaceutical sector. It was a bit of a shock when I became the Country Manager of Family Healthcare and I saw the total dilapidation of the infrastructure in the healthcare sector. It was a big eye opener. At that time it dawned on me that what we required as a country was not products. It was a solution that was required.

People required hand holding, a full garment, and not just a provision of equipments, but to make sure that such equipments are properly installed and operational, and full maintenance provided, so that people get a return of investment on their capital expenditure. So that is how JNC International Limited came into being. It has been nine years now, and we have staff strength of about seventy.

The journey so far

We wanted to provide a company that would provide full solutions for our clients and ensures that we can make an impact. And having said this we developed an in-house training institute. We developed our own local engineers; a team of 15 engineers headed by an expatriate. In the beginning we had expatriated install most of our equipment, but as we grew things changed.

Right now about 98% of our equipment that we install is done by Nigerians in this country. That is to show how much we have had to scale up.Bridging skill gap via providing quality healthcare

In doing this we also helped our client because, the quality of our education has actually dropped. You find out that there is a skill gap. So we had to bridge the skill gap by bringing quality healthcare. We do training sections and workshops.

Proudly Nigeria

Capacity building is an essential and critical part of what we do and our success story. We are proudly Nigeria. We want to make sure that we are not joining any of the other companies in dumping of unusable equipment in the country, or bringing in of substandard equipment, or third hand equipment or equipment that was meant only for Africa.

We sell the same equipment that we sell in Nigeria, exactly what is sold in the states or in Japan.

Considering our peculiar infrastructural challenges

Technology is important but we need the appropriate technology bearing in mind our infrastructural challenges that we have in the country.

For example with theatre lights we have made sure that there is always battery back-up. If you are doing a CT scan or an MRI you must have a robust UPS in place that protects the equipment from powers surges but also keeps it running in the event of power down.

Company's growth curve in the last five years

Initially we grew by words of mouth. We had no sales persons on the field; one satisfied client told another. People were happy and when people are happy they tell others. So, that was how we grew. But obviously people needed more attention, so, as we grew bigger, we deployed more people. Since then, we've recorded a minimum of 20% growth each year in areas such as human resource, finance, capacity and impact.

We have grown from being a Lagos based company to now having a national spread. Thereafter, we did full cardiac centre and it is the only full cardiac centre in the country. Presently, some of those patients that had to go to India are now being treated in Nigeria.

Five years into the future

One of the things that we are passionate about is for us to improve diagnostic and prevention. We provide just diagnostic equipments to help detect cases like cancers. Without providing intervention equipments for radiography, people will still be exported out of the country. So, we need to be able to curb medical tourism by not only doing the diagnostic side but also improving intervention.

What is the consultative forum about?

The Healthcare Federation of Nigeria is a non-profit organisation set up for advocacy, to make a change in private health care sector, to create enabling environment to redress some of the negative things going on in the health and private space. So, to be able to do this, we need to interact and engage all members of the health sector.




Source - allafrica.com