Today Kit Yamoyo launched nationwide in the 26 Shoprite stores in Zambia. Over the next few days all stores will be seeded with 100 kits. This is transformational. Currently less than 1% of children in sub-Saharan Africa get the internationally recommended treatment for diarrhoea and diarrhoea remains the second biggest infectious killer of under 5 children killing about 1 child a minute. This is largely a problem of access. Now the gold standard diarrhoea treatment is accessible across the whole of Zambia. We just need to make more caregivers aware of it and today’s press launch at the British High Commission, with guest of honour the Hon Minister of Health, Dr Joseph Kasonde, is the first step towards this.
Dr Joseph Kasonde, Hon Minister of Health, deals with press interest after the launch
As well as the direct access effect of having Kit Yamoyo on the shelves of Shoprite, we expect Shoprite to act as a quasi-wholesaler as indicated in Charles Bota’s speech reproduced below.
SPEECH MADE BY CHARLES BOTA, GENERAL MANAGER, SHOPRITE, ZAMBIA AT THE KIT YAMOYO AND SHOPRITE PARTNERSHIP LAUNCH ON 27TH NOVEMBER 2015 AT THE BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION, LUSAKA
THE GUEST OF HONOUR, THE MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR JOESPH KASONDE, MP
THE ACTING HIGH COMMISSIONER, LUCY JOYCE
THE FORMER FIRST LADY CHARLOTTE HARLAND
THE HEAD OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, DR JACOB MUFUNDA
THE DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL OF COMESA, DR KIPYEGO CHELUGET
NATIONAL PROGRAMS MANAGER FOR THE SWEDISH GOVERNMENT, AUDREY MWENDAPOLE
THE CEO COLALIFE, SIMON BERRY
CEOS AND COUNTRY DIRECTORS PRESENT
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS PRESENT
INVITED GUESTS, MEMBERS OF THE PRESS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
SHOPRITE IS ZAMBIA’S LARGEST SUPERMARKET CHAIN. WE HAVE 26 STORES ACROSS THE 9 PROVINCES OF ZAMBIA AND WE SERVICE ABOUT 750,000 CUSTOMERS A WEEK. PART OF OUR MISSION IS TO BRING THE BEST QUALITY PRODUCTS TO OUR CUSTOMERS AT THE LOWEST PRICES. ANOTHER PART OF OUR MISSION IS TO BETTER THE LIVES OF AS MANY UNDER PRIVILEGED ZAMBIANS AS POSSIBLE THROUGH OUR EXTENSIVE COMMUNITY SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WORKS. BECAUSE OF OUR LARGE FOOTPRINT, WE ARE VERY WELL PLACED TO DELIVER ON THESE TWO ASPECTS.
GUEST OF HONOUR, SHOPRITE’S POLICY IN THE COUNTRIES WE TRADE INCLUDING ZAMBIA IS TO WORK TO ENSURE THAT THE TOP QUALITY PRODUCTS WE STOCK ARE INCREASINGLY SOURCED LOCALLY AND IN THIS CASE, PROUDLY ZAMBIAN PRODUCTS. YOU MAY WISH TO KNOW THAT WHEN SHOPRITE OPENED ITS FIRST OUTLET IN ZAMBIA, ON CAIRO ROAD HERE IN LUSAKA IN OCTOBER 1995, ABOUT 90 PERCENT OF OUR TOTAL PRODUCTS WERE IMPORTED. THIS WAS PRIMARILY BECAUSE THERE WERE NO SUPPLIERS OR PROPER INDUSTRIES OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS. THE ECONOMIC, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TRANSPORT AND OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE WAS RUN DOWN AND MANY FORMERLY GREAT MANUFACTURING COMPANIES HAD COLLAPSED.
IN LINE WITH THE GROUP POLICY, SHOPRITE ZAMBIA BEGAN TO WORK WITH LOCAL SUPPLIERS AND FARMERS TO BUILD CAPACITY, QUALITY, RETAIL SUPPLY ACUMEN AND ALL THAT GOES WITH WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCESSFULLY SUPPLY A LARGE SUPERMARKET CHAIN. GUEST OF HONOUR YOU WILL BE PLEASED TO KNOW THAT NOW, IN OUR 20-YEAR ANNIVERSARY IN ZAMBIA, SHOPRITE BUYS IN ABOUT 75 PERCENT OF OUR TOTAL BUSINESS LOCALLY FROM SUPPLIERS AND AGENTS.
WE ARE COMMITTED TO SUPPORT QUALITY ZAMBIAN SUPPLIERS AND ENTREPRENEURS ACROSS THE WHOLE RANGE OF PRODUCT LINES, COMPLEMENTING THE GOVERNMENT’S EFFORTS TO BOOST LOCAL SUPPLIERS. WHEN THE RIGHT QUALITY, PRICING, PACKAGING AND VOLUME IS AVAILABLE, BUYING LOCALLY IS BEST FOR US, AND IS BEST FOR ZAMBIA.
GUEST OF HONOUR THAT IS WHY SHOPRITE IS PROUD TO HAVE SELECTED TO PARTNER WITH THE KIT YAMOYO ORAL REHYDRATION AND ZINC PACK. WE INTEND TO USE OUR LARGE FOOTPRINT TO SELL THIS PRODUCT ACROSS ALL OF OUR 26 STORES IN ZAMBIA. WE HAVE RECOGNISED IN THE NEAT LITTLE KIT YAMOYO PACK, A WINNING, WORLD-CLASS DESIGN THAT COMPLIES WITH INTERNATIONAL HEALTH STANDARDS, COMPLIES WITH ZAMBIAN REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS, AND WITH WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS WANT IN A GENERAL SALES HEALTH COMMODITY. WE HAVE ALREADY BEGAN TO STOCK OUR STORES WITH THIS FANTASTIC AND NECESSARY PRODUCT AND IT IS TO BE FOUND IN THE NON-ACROSS-THE-COUNTER MEDICINES SECTION OF EVERY ONE OF OUR STORES IN THE 9 PROVINCES.
IN THIS PARTNERSHIP, KIT YAMOYO PROVIDES THE KIT’S RECOGNISED EASE OF USE; AND SHOPRITE PROVIDES EASE OF ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY.
GUEST OF HONOUR, BECAUSE KIT YAMOYO FITS NOT ONLY OUR QUALITY REQUIREMENTS, BUT ALSO OUR DEDICATION TO COMMUNITY UPLIFTMENT AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, SHOPRITE WILL RETAIL KIT YAMOYO AT K8.19 A PACKET WHICH IS AS CLOSE TO THE EX-FACTORY (WHOLESALE) PRICE AS POSSIBLE WITH NO PROFIT EXCEPT TO COVER ADMIN EXPENSES.
OUR GENUINE DESIRE IS THAT THE PRODUCT WILL REACH AS MANY CHILDREN AS POSSIBLE. OUR RETAIL INTELLIGENCE HAS REVEALED THAT MANY WHOLESALERS AND TU NTEMBA TRADERS AND ENTREPRENEURS OFTEN BUY PRODUCTS AT SHOPRITE’S LOW PRICES, TO SELL ON TO THEIR MARKETS. WE OFTEN LIMIT QUANTITIES IN MANY OF THESE CASES. THIS HOWEVER, IS ONE INSTANCE WHERE WE WILL LOOK THE OTHER WAY AND HOPE THE TRADERS WILL BUY IN BULK AND GO ON TO SELL IN COMPOUNDS AND FAR FLUNG VILLAGES IN ORDER TO REACH THE MASSES.
THE LAUNCH OF THIS NEW PRODUCT, KIT YAMOYO, IS TIMELY FOR US AND FOR OUR CUSTOMERS: AS THE RAINY SEASON BEGINS, BRINGING INCREASED RISK OF ILLNESS ESPECIALLY AMONG OUR CHILDREN, WE ARE PROUD TO OFFER OUR CUSTOMERS BOTH HEALTH-GIVING LOCAL FOODS AND TOP QUALITY HEALTH PRODUCTS UNDER ONE ROOF. THAT TIES IN RATHER NICELY WITH SHOPRITE’S AIM TO OFFER A WORLD-CLASS SHOPPING EXPERIENCE WHERE YOU ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE FAMILY, AND IN THIS CASE KIT YAMOYO ORAL REHYDRATION AND ZINC ANTI-DIARRHOEA PACK INCLUDED, IN ONE STOP.
I THANK YOU
CHARLES BOTA
GENERAL MANAGER
ZAMBIA
A couple of people asked me to publish my speech. This is it:
Simon Berry’s speech
Co-founder and CEO of ColaLife
Launch of the Kit Yamoyo anti-diarrhoea kit in Shoprite stores nationwide
18:00hrs, 27-Nov-15, British High Commission
Thank you High Commissioner and thank you for hosting tonight’s event which is another milestone in our mission to make a diarrhoea treatment kit called Kit Yamoyo as ubiquitous as Coca-Cola. Available in every community across the country.
I stand here as CEO of ColaLife but I’m not CEO of very much really. I have no staff to manage. We have no office. We have just one vehicle. We are one of the smallest international NGOs in the World.
We don’t develop policy, we don’t regulate anything, we don’t know how to develop or manufacture drugs. We don’t buy or sell drugs and we have no capacity for distributing them. We have no commercial outlets and no sales or marketing team.
And yet, if you are working on improving access to ORS and Zinc – the international standard for the treatment of diarrhoea – anywhere in the World you will probably have heard of ColaLife.
On the other hand if you are Zambian caregiver or a community health worker promoting Kit Yamoyo you won’t have heard of ColaLife. If you are a small retailer selling Kit Yamoyo, you won’t have heard of ColaLife. Wholesalers and distributors who trade Kit Yamoyo don’t know about ColaLife. And the people working in Medical Stores distributing the public sector version of Kit Yamoyo won’t have heard of ColaLife either.
The Kit Yamoyo product doesn’t carry ColaLife branding and nor do any of the promotional materials.
So why is that? It’s because our work – and it isn’t easy – is to bring organisations who know how to do these things together. To empower and inspire them to take on new ideas and work in new ways. We are here tonight because of the way Zambian organisations from the public, private and NGO sector have come together in a special and rather unique way to get behind the mission to make an anti-diarrhoea kit as ubiquitous as Coca-Cola and save children’s lives.
Kit Yamoyo is the product of Zambian endeavour and partnership and to be sustainable it has to be that way. There must be no long-term dependency on ColaLife if you are to succeed. ColaLife is a temporary player in all of this. We are working on a solvable problem – unnecessary death from dehydration due to diarrhoea – and so ColaLife’s own demise has been built in from the start.
We are working within the policy framework developed by the Ministry of Health. We benefit from the supervision and support provided by the medicines regulator ZAMRA. We have worked with caregivers to design a diarrhoea treatment kit that they WANT. How do we know? Because we asked them.
Because we have a product people want that is profitable for all those involved in fulfilling the demand for it, there is a reason for Pharmanova to produce it and for others to engage in its distribution and sale.
But let’s not get carried away. We’ve come a very long way but we have a long way to go yet. Although Keepers Zambia Foundation have trained hundreds of shopkeepers and Community Health Workers, the fact is that only a tiny percentage of the Zambian population know what Kit Yamoyo is and how to use it. Our task over the next three years is to change that. We know from our trial that once people have used Kit Yamoyo, they don’t want to use anything else. We just need to get the product in front of more and more people and give them the chance to use it.
Today we are celebrating the fact that Shoprite has joined us in our effort to achieve this massive task. With more than 20 stores nationwide and a store in every province, coupled with a reputation for quality and value for money we couldn’t wish for a better partner.
I wish to thank all those who have engaged with us on this journey and you’ll hear from some of them now. But tonight the focus is on Shoprite. Your involvement comes at precisely the right time and quite simply changes everything as far as access to diarrhoea treatment for children in Zambia is concerned.
Enjoy this evening. The hard work resumes tomorrow and the World is watching. We will either succeed or fail spectacularly. Let’s succeed shall we?
Thank you very much everyone. I’d now like to hand over to John Msimuko, Executive Director of Keepers Zambia Foundation.
Simon Berry
Co-founder and CEO
ColaLife
