Chibuzo Opara: 'My dream is that 10 years from now, there will be no need for anyone, family, friends and fellow Nigerians to travel abroad for quality care'
Q&A with the healthcare entrepreneur on taking calculated risks, cultivating the appropriate entrepreneurial mindset, and the exciting healthcare opportunity within Nigeria.
Chibuzo Opara is the Co-Founder and CEO of DrugStoc, a secure and interactive procurement platform (Online/Offline) that empowers healthcare providers by giving access to safe and quality pharmaceutical products through a consolidated supply chain system. In addition to receiving support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Growth Capital, DrugStoc also emerged as one of the Top 10 finalists at Jack Ma‘s flagship program in Africa – Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative.
What fundamental belief system inspired the creation of DrugStoc?
When faced with societal, infrastructural or somewhat existential challenges, e.g. incessant power outages in Nigeria, you notice two different groups of people. Those who rise up and look for a solution, and those who complain and blame the government. At DrugStoc, we do not believe anyone else will come and solve our problems for us. We believe that the problems we face as Africans today can be solved by Africans. The promising thing is that today, we have a generation of Africans who are exposed and motivated to put their destinies into their own hands, and change the status quo.
What’s something you do every day that is non-negotiable for you?
Each morning, I start off my day with my personal time. This spans anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, where I spend time meditating, praying, or getting in tune with what needs to be done for the day. At the end of the day, I balance my score card. This essentially means I do not go to bed without touching everything that needs to be touched.
Another thing I also do is to play with my kids. This unexpectedly makes me a more creative person. I teach them the boring stuff they need to know about navigate life. And they teach me how to live in the moment and see life for what it is.
What are the formative ingredients in your childhood that came to create your perspective?
I was a very sickly child and spent the days indoors, while also reading a lot of books. As a result, I spent a lot of time in my own imagination. My parents also put a lot of pressure on me to excel in school.
In addition to these unique experiences, my mother was a nurse, while my dad was a sickle cell patient. This had a huge impact on the way we approached healthcare in our household and motivated us, especially my dad, to make a difference in the lives of others. Inspired by my parents, coupled with being surrounded by a number of healthcare professionals in my extended family, automatically gravitated me towards a career in the sector.
What do you consider to be one of the greatest challenges for developing a business on the African continent?
Every challenge, depending on your impact goals or sector, could be your greatest challenge as an entrepreneur. Based on experience, varied challenges include the business lifecycle, regulation, and infrastructure. However, one of the challenges most entrepreneurs here struggle with is mindset. Specifically, the mindset to keep going when business challenges seem dire or insurmountable.
Personally, I do not see entrepreneurship for our generation as a side conversation. The stats are very clear; the jobs we all went to the universities for do not exist anymore. Now more than ever we need to create opportunities and jobs for our generation. If you can and are willing, it makes sense to branch out and launch something exciting. Sure, the business may fail however, the trick is to fail fast and move on to the next. The ones that do not fail will get supported, and eventually create a lot of jobs. I also believe the entrepreneurial model in Africa needs to be expanded and further unleashed to grow. What holds the German economy together is the several small and medium-sized businesses which employ often less than 10 people at a time but together they provide employment for a large part of the society. For Africans to climb up the economic ladder as quickly as possible, we entrepreneurs and prospective entrepreneurs need to step up and start taking risks.
Building a company from scratch takes grit. What drives you on?
It’s easy to focus on the challenges. However, what keeps me going is the vision and mission of the company. The depth of relationships I’ve built over the years with team members, stakeholders, and friends have also held and supported me during unstable times. My family members have also been some of the greatest sources of energy and support systems- especially my wife, kids, and siblings.
To be completely honest, every time I’ve also thought of giving up, I recall my strong desire to make a true difference. My dream/litmus test is that 10 years from now, there will be no need for anyone, family, friends and fellow Nigerians to travel abroad for quality care.
There are a tremendous number of opportunities on the African continent. How do you stay focused on your journey?
First and foremost, healthcare is the space I know and understand. Secondly, I don’t think I’ve digested the problem we’re chewing thoroughly yet. There’s still a lot of opportunity and gaps left to close. We’ve also recorded some personal and professional successes and these motivate us to focus and keep driving forward.
If you could do it all again, what would you have done differently?
I doubt I would do things much differently. I would tell my younger self to trust the process, as it gets better with time. Maybe, one thing I might do a bit more of would be to get mentors earlier to provide information in certain gap areas.
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Jeph Acheampong leads Blossom Academy; an edtech company that provides world-class data courses and transforms careers.
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