The infrastructure in Africa is not well developed,” says Mohammed Akoojee, Group Chief Operating Officer for Global Logistics at DP World. It’s something DP World has been working hard to change.

Akoojee says that since leading logistics and market access business Imperial Logistics (Imperial) was acquired by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World in March 2022, “we have invested in cold chain logistics across Africa. We have temperature-controlled facilities in southern, eastern, and western Africa.”

These facilities are part of an extensive network that also includes in-bound logistics, 100,000 sq. m. of warehousing in 27 locations, and 127 primary care clinics under the Unjani Clinics Network – an initiative in which DP World’s Imperial business is a partner and key funder. Unjani Clinics provide affordable and accessible healthcare to uninsured patients for a minimal fee. It also empowers nurses to operate and own primary healthcare container clinics in their communities.

And in a landmark strategic healthcare alliance, DP World’s Imperial business has partnered with Ubipharm from January 2022 onwards to create a pan-African, end-to-end healthcare distribution network – one of the largest in Africa – across 40 countries.

This alliance is an unprecedented integration of African pharmaceutical logistics, with the potential to substantially strengthen healthcare access across the continent, and a significant reduction in complexity – decreasing the need for pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors to work with multiple distributors to obtain medicine.

But while connections like these are fundamental to physically moving medicine where it’s needed, there are also administrative barriers to overcome.

There were many reasons Africa lost out in the initial scramble for Covid-19 vaccines. One was the continent’s lack of medical manufacturing capacity, making it dependant on other countries.

Africa imports up to 90% of its medicine. And when global supply chains ground to a half during the pandemic, many pharmacies in Africa found themselves empty of everything from over-the-counter painkillers to critical medicines for cancer and HIV.

“Africa has to become self-sufficient,” says Akoojee. And logistics is a big part of achieving that. “If you can create efficient infrastructure and logistics more people want to manufacture in Africa. Companies like DP World are trade enablers. By making distribution more effective, lowering the cost-to-market, manufacturers are encouraged to set up closer to their customers.”

Logistics is far from the only barrier to establishing domestic drug production. But cheaper distribution could be a significant shot-in-the-arm for efforts to attract investors and build capacity.

With a stronger manufacturing base, Africa would be better positioned to produce its own vaccines for new Covid-19 strains – or another pandemic – as well as securing a reliable supply of affordable generic medicines.