#BellaNaijaMCM Bryan Mezue of Lifestores Pharmacy is Democratising Healthcare for Africans

For our #BellaNaijaMCM feature this week, we celebrate Bryan Mezue, an angel investor and entrepreneur who’s the co-founder of Lifestores Pharmacy, a chain of disruptive pharmacies focused on delivering low-cost healthcare products and services that empower low and middle-income Nigerians.

In Nigeria, majority of the population see the pharmacy as the first port of call for healthcare services. This is because, as at 2018, health insurance penetration was at 5%. Most people, especially in rural and low-income urban areas do not have access to hospitals and doctors, so the pharmacies are their only hope. The pharmacist has a more elevated role, compared to their counterparts in developed countries. They sometimes perform some of the roles associated with doctors: consultation with an individual; filling of prescription, e.t.c.

Bryan saw this situation and decided to launch Lifestores Pharmacy in 2017 to challenge the scourge of fake medicines, expensive treatments and sub-par customer service so that quality healthcare the norm for all.

Lifestores Pharmacy currently has four stores across Nigeria, and also supports third-party pharmacies with services that helps them manage their operations, track inventory, assist customers/patients with their health-care regimen via an online platform.

Lifestores’ VIVA program is an end-to-end support program for individuals managing chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes.

Prior to founding Lifestores Pharmacy, Bryan founded Banyi Group out of a passion for a more socially responsible form of business and for a paradigm shift in Africa’s development story. Banyi Group’s goal is to bring transformative development and mass job creation to Africa through disruptive innovations.

Before Banyi Group, Bryan was a Harvard Fellow at the Forum for Growth and Innovation, where he collaborated closely with Professor Clay Christensen, the business consultant who developed the theory of “disruptive innovation”, to pioneer research on the relationship between disruptive innovations and economic development.

Bryan is a co-founder and Board Member for WAVE Academies, a vocational education social enterprise focused on addressing youth unemployment by identifying, training and placing underemployed youths in income-transforming jobs.

Bryan received an MBA from Harvard Business School and completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics, Statistics & Economics from Warwick University.

He’s one of the individuals selected for the inaugural Obama Foundation Leaders: Africa program in 2018.

We celebrate Bryan for his work in improving the health of Nigerians and Africans at large, and for helping to build capacity among Africa’s youth and we’re rooting for him.