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pronov health

Pronov is a software-as-a-service platform (online & offline) that help dispensaries & pharmacies manage their inventory, reduce costs through bulk-breaking and provide access to working capital


Pronov is creating a pharma-fintech solution to create financial inclusion for proprietary patent medicine vendors (PPMVs) by making it easier for them to get products (drugs) on credit. 

Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.

To become the foremost platform in developing economies that help micro & nano-store owners manage their inventories to improve profitability & affordability of their merchandise through smart POS systems, bulk breaking, access to finance & data analysis 

Pronov seeks to make available quality drugs to store owners in bulk with a pay later option. By doing this, Pronov gives her customers access to quality-assured supply chains for essential drug commodities while ensuring financial support for her PPMVS 

 Provide digital financial inclusion, as well as supply chain management tool designed for use by healthcare companies in Nigeria.

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

As a result of recent happenings,  the WHO organization has stated that the transmission of COVID-19 is facilitated by close contact between people; as the virus is spread through respiratory droplets and contact with contaminated surfaces. This as affected most working sectors of the country, as most companies have reduced staff across boards and some still battling with contactless delivery.


With the restrictions of movement and lockdown slightly relaxed, the risk of transmission has increased since there will be high human interactions around, including workplaces. 

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

We will procure and deliver (using contactless delivery) to companies, protective materials from Nigerian, US, European and Chinese companies. We will leverage on our supply chain network to ensure that workplaces, public places, and companies get these products at the best prices possible.


We will be leveraging on our business intelligence, smart inventory system,  and digital financial  inclusion to make retail simpler for the bottom billion 

Share your story (your narrative)

Meet Mr. Paul, owner of a medicine outlet who has the following challenges:


• Inefficient POS system
• “Dumb” inventory system
• Inaccurate forecasting
• Frequent stock out
• Poor Access to working capital
• Weak profitability
• Low-quality inventory
• Poor Health Outcomes for served Communities


Mr. Paul gets introduced to the Pronov app and now has at his fingertips our easy-to-use smart inventory management and POS system integrated with analytics that optimizes inventory stocking. Phishing in his store is now over. Now he can make a profit without stress and better than before.


Mr paul now manages his store better as he can order goods in bulks at lesser prices from Pronov app, which gets delivered to his storefront without hassle.


With thousands of stores activated across the country and hundreds of thousands of transactions processed, Pronov is just the best
solution for store owners nationwide when it comes to procuring, delivery, inventor,  and product loan.

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

  1. ProNov has seen a massive increase in demand for COVID/healthcare-related products, Faceshields, Personal protective Equipment, Sanitizers e.tc.

  2. This has led to increase in revenue and smoothen our healthcare procurement arm.
    ProNov is uniquely placed in a market (Healthcare) that has seen little reduction due to COVID-19, this has further strengthened our resolve about our mission to serve the Nigerian retail SMEs market starting from the Pharmaceutical sector.

edited on Jul 23, 2020 by Opacus Tech
Public (24)
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Kazi Jawoad Hossain Jul 24, 2020

Hello Pronov Team,

Interesting Idea. I would request you to address few questions.

1) Small pharmacy owner prefer keeping books written on papers in many parts of developing world where the pharmacies are a booming business due to more population/ need for healthcare. How do you market it? How would you bring users to leave their conventional practice for your solution?

2) Please use less jargon like 'bulk-breaking' which might be easy to read for people who are outside of the domain?

3) I know there are a number of competitions. How you are different? Why would you be successful?

4) The margins are slim in such business. Give us more about business side of the innovation.

Opacus Tech Jul 27, 2020

Thanks Kazi for your comments.

- True, small business owners love to keep their books on paper due to so many reasons.
Illiteracy, lack of compelling reasons not to, User-centric interfaces.
Do they know that their automated digital book-keeping practices and invoicing can help as a creit rating system to allow them get loans? Maybe not.
Our solution incorporates an simple interface for ease of use, plus credit system; so we anticipate this are good reasons to get them to get digitized.

- We will reduce technical jargons. Thanks

- In a beginning stages of a 1.4m market in Nigeria, creating an solution our customers love is our major focus.

- Bulk-buying and enabling us to get better prices from the manufacturers(We have partnerships with 5 manufacturers).
We are also driving margins from our Credit platform.

Ronnex Wataya Jul 24, 2020

Hello opacus, wonderful innovation there buddy ! your idea is intriguing. Is the innovation at a prototype stage yet? what are the main suppliers of pharma products? can you clarify on how the suppliers will get connected to your system and why would they choose your system? can you also elaborate who will be financing items purchased on credit? are you partnering with money lenders to cover the costs? lastly what is your business model and how are you going to sustain the chain for the next 3 years in the market. all the best buddy

Achia Khaleda Jul 24, 2020

What is your competitive advantage?

Opacus Tech Jul 27, 2020

Thanks, Achia for your comments.


In the beginning stages of a largely untapped 1.4million market in Nigeria, even bigger in Africa, creating a solution customer's love is our major focus.

First, Bulk-buying and enabling us to get better prices from the manufacturers

Second, We are also driving margins from our Credit platform.

Being a one-stop shop for our retail customers to handle their business, after validating an MVP and acquiring customers is an execution risk rather a market risk

Our team with combined 10 years starting and building companies is confident to be able to get and satisfy our customer while rapidly learning

Achia Khaleda Jul 27, 2020

wow! you are running its very nicely :) wish you all the best

James Kiruri Jul 24, 2020

Hi Pronov team, well done and great to see you are already proving the concept the US$ 75k revenue proves there is potential. Are there plans to scale beyond Nigeria?

Opacus Tech Jul 27, 2020

Thanks James, Definitely there are plans to scale beyond Nigeria is the very near future.

African retailers need this, we are providing this. We will count on your support, how can we reach you.

Simon Mbewe Jul 24, 2020

Have you taken into account your competition with regards to supply chain and how do you differentiate yourself from other fintech start ups?

Tafadzwa Chikwereti Jul 24, 2020

Hello Pronov team

Tafadzwa Chikwereti Jul 24, 2020

To add to your solution, I am sharing with you questions from one of our trainings that can help in refining our ideas and projects

What business model will you follow to implement this idea?
What methodology or strategy will you use during different processes of implementing this idea?
Which are the processes you have to go through until the finalization of the idea?
What means or tools do you need to implement my idea?
Which are your potential collaborators, investors?

I honestly suggest that before you submit your idea or project, please and ask yourself these questions and even if you have submitted their project, do remember that we still have opportunity to refine our ideas and resubmit. I hope that you find this useful. And you would use it

I woulf love it if you supported and commented on my idea

EUNICE KAJALA Jul 25, 2020

Hi Opacus,

Good idea.What is your timeline for your pay later option? How do you sustain your initiative if you have a significant number of pay later options?

Israel Abazie Jul 25, 2020

Wow wow Opacus Tech! I think your idea is ingenious. My honest opinion, I think you should cut down your features. Managing inventories is already a big role and connecting to quality supply chains requires even more attention: here, how do you handle the logistics and package handling (note this is very crucial, will the orders be delivered timely?) how do you collect payments? So don't include loans now, it involves one too many risks. Most importantly, conduct a comprehensive survey or research to know the many peculiarities of your market. The goal here is to build what people want. Cutting down your categories helps you to manage stress and stay focused while starting out. Goodluck and keep building.

James Kiruri Jul 25, 2020

Hello Opacus, in addition to my earlier comment, there are other ideas shared in this challenge that seem to serve the same purpose as Pronov, kindly utilise the opportunity to share and co-create with these other teams as there would be opportunities for immense synergy

Marabe Ditshego Jul 25, 2020

Hi Opacus,
I trust you are well.

Let me congratulate you on your idea.

I wish to share a few considerations.

1. Consider showing facts/stats (with sources) that claim that PPMV’s are plagued by inventory mismanagement, high costs and lack of cash flow. It would be great to also make mention of how the challenges faced by PPMV’s affect the community. This will give readers a clear idea of why Pronov is in existence and the societal impact it has or will have.
2. Consider changing your objectives into SMART objectives to reflect how you intend to convert your idea to a prototype in the years to come. Visit https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/project-objectives/ for a detailed explanation
3. Consider expanding the minimum viable solution section to reflect on the exact mechanisms Pronov intends to deploy or leverage to provide its services i.e. collaborate with banks to provide funding for PPMVs, etc.

Leidy Fajardo Sua Jul 25, 2020

Hi Pronov Team, good idea to help to small business owners!! I only have a question: Who is the investor in this credit system?

I invite you to help us with your comments and vote to our idea Digital cord.(https://cocreate.itu.int/post/3473780) Thanks

Milena Milicevic Jul 25, 2020

HI Pronov team, great that you are addressing improvements in supply chains of two quite regulated industries: pharma and fin-tech. Two comments from my side: 1) Bear in mind if there are stakeholders / forces who may not be glad about your innovation: if you bring greater efficiency to the market, maybe you also disrupt their monopoly status? 2) Usually SaaS solutions take several months to sell due to the sales cycle and numerous stakeholders involved. Could you fine tune / optimize your customer journey so as to make SaaS sales funnel more efficient?

Onwuka Uchenna Jul 26, 2020

Nice idea,
However, strengthen your competitive edge against other similar services.

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

Thanks Onwuka;

We are constantly working on improving the value for our customers.

Thanks again; Please could you kindly vote us up

Nabuyuni Sankan Jul 26, 2020

Hello Opacus Tech

Great thinking.

Kindly elaborate your Unique Selling point for the concept and the 3 goals that you would like to achieve from your project.
You could try breaking down the concept and highlighting progress for it.

All the best
Best Regards.

Thomas Mueller Jul 26, 2020

This is a great Idea. However, in many countries, I know for sure Namibia and South Africa have seamlessly integrated distribution chains between pharmacies, distributors, transport companies, vendors and the medical insurance. Does such not exist in Nigeria?

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

Thanks Thomas.

There's no one startup that does the above in our market at this scale, however we wouldn't mind introductions to those companies.

We will kindly appreciate a vote up, Thomas

Emmanuel Danso Jul 26, 2020

How do you plan to scale to other regions?

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

Our current plan is to focus extensively on serving our initial customers and meet their needs.

We have our views on scaling as soon as we do this.

Please we will appreciate your votes up.

Andinda Ruth Jul 27, 2020

how do you recover the money when the beneficiary of the drugs fails to pay

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

We have our credit rating system that profiles store's account and suggest a payable loan amount.

We will take advantage of account deduction and if needed, use field agents

Please we will appreciate a votes up

Ivana Kostic Jul 27, 2020

Hello! Why do you think this is a solution for only developing economies? Do you potentially see the developed economies as your future target market and why? Also, are there other industries, aside from health, where your solution would be applicable? Thanks, Ivana

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

Thanks Ivana Kostic,

This solution isn't specific to developing markets, We live and operate in a developing market like Nigeria. So our solution was built to solve a specific problem with Retail SMEs.

Small SMEs need this, across the world. We can speak further about our understanding and how we developed this to make it adaptable in developed economies.

Please we will appreciate your votes up; kindly let me know if you are interested to chat further

Htet Zan Linn Jul 29, 2020

Great idea, At first glance I thought you are establishing yourself as technology enabler but going through the details it looks like you will focus on supply chain management rather than just being a tech enabler. Would not this be a massive resource intensive venture? It would be more easy to understand your project if you can elaborate more on the minimum viable solution you have. Nevertheless, you have got my vote ! We should help small pharmacies be more profitable before the big corporate chains take over. They are very important part of the community especially in developing countries.

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

Thanks very much Linn,

In developing countries like ours, enabling is beautiful but doing the work of deepening the value of our SMEs, providing suite to provide a MOAT might seem more stressful in the early stages might look daunting but it's way profitable and provide opportunities for expanding solution across the value chain

DJ Koeman Jul 30, 2020

HI this is great, especially since it also hopefully will tackle the counterfeit drugs issue. Have you looked at myDawa in Kenya, doing something similar?

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

Thanks Koeman.

We are familiar with myDawa, though there's a remarkable difference in our business, as our core product is a suite of inventory management, direct supply chain solution, and credit financing, targeted at retail SMEs, where which Pharmacies and PPMVs are our oceanfront.

We will appreciate a vote up. thanks again

IKECHUKWU UMEZURUMBA Aug 1, 2020

Opacus Tech,good one.I will want to know considering the fact that some pharmacies in Nigeria have an inventory management application,why should others leave what they have and go for yours?

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

Very valid question. Our core product is a suite of inventory management, direct supply chain solution and credit financing, targeted at retail SMEs, of which Pharmacies are part

Opacus Tech Aug 3, 2020

We will appreciate your vote up too..Thanks Ikechukwu

Nivashini Rave Rattey Aug 20, 2020

Status label added: Community feedback received

Nivashini Rave Rattey Aug 20, 2020

The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.

Muyunda Kaonga Aug 24, 2020

Hello Opacus, awesome idea. I am happy to see that we have amazing people like you that are working hard to bring smiles to people amidst this crisis. How are pharmacists currently solving this and what is your unique value proposition?