Airtel, Sproxil collaborate to fight drug counterfeiting in Africa

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company in Africa, has announced a partnership with Sproxil, a venture-backed, social enterprise that provides world-class brand protection services in emerging markets, to combat the counterfeit drug market in Africa.

Stating what informed its decision to go into the partnership, Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel, Africa, commented, “Our goal is to bring affordable and easily accessible health services to over 450 million people. The battle against counterfeit drugs is a huge step towards this goal.” 

“Whilst this agreement is a step in the right direction, I also believe that collaboration between all the stakeholders in the mobile health ecosystem is key to a successful and sustainable future,” he added.

Also commenting on the benefits they stand to gain from the partnership, Dr. Ashifi Gogo, Sproxil CEO, said; “Building relationships with individual telecom companies and acquiring the short codes necessary for our MPA solution in each country can take a considerable amount of time – it slows down deployment.” 

“By working with Airtel, we can get short codes in various countries and different markets from just one company, streamlining the process and ‘turbo charging’ our expansion throughout the region,” he stated, adding, “For the consumers it’s a win-win – two advanced technologies working together:  Airtel’s network provides high quality, very affordable telecom service enabling consumers to take advantage of Sproxil’s brand protection solution, at no cost to them.”        

Meanwhile, Sproxil’s Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™) solution will allow consumers to verify product genuineness within seconds through a text message, while Airtel will offer this service absolutely free to its users and not charge for any SMS based verification. 

According to a statement announcing the deal, Sproxil’s service works by placing a scratch-off label on products, and then when consumers purchase a product, they scratch off the label to reveal a unique, random code. The code is then sent via SMS to a country-specific Toll Free short code, and the consumer receives a reply almost instantly, indicating whether the product is genuine or not.   

The partnership is designed to facilitate the deployment of Sproxil’s Mobile Product AuthentificationTM (MPA) solution throughout developing regions of Africa - markets where Airtel is entrenched as a leading telecommunications provider.

Currently, Airtel provides services in 17 countries across Africa, which include Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

This means the initiative will bring drug authentication service closer to a population of the over 450 million people in those 17 countries across Africa.