Zipline has appointed Mawuli Atiemo as the new General Manager of its Ghana operations, effective July 2022.
He is joining Zipline from AstraZeneca, where he was the Ghana Country Lead and has had over 15 years of multi-sectoral wealth of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry, stretching across various business development functions.
In the various positions he has held over the years, Mawuli Atiemo has demonstrated rare leadership responsibility, including building and developing talents, managing high-performing teams, and developing and increasing sales.
Through his leadership as Sales Manager in 2017 with AstraZeneca, the team he headed delivered the 2018 budget with strong double-digit growth and won the Best Sales Team in Sub Saharan Africa for 2018, Best Sales Manager Award for Sub Saharan Africa, and Circle of Excellence MEA (Middle East Africa) winner.
He played a core role in AstraZeneca Sub Saharan Africa’s (SSA) growth, leading both business and the company’s strategic objective and driving the execution of Ghana’s sales and marketing initiatives.
His valued contribution to the business has been recognized at both AstraZeneca African Cluster and Middle East Africa (MEA) Level.
Mawuli’s appointment comes at a time when the successes of Zipline in Ghana has largely been said to be the driver of Zipline’s rapid expansion into countries like Nigeria, Kenya, the USA, Japan and Cote D’Ivoire.
In Ghana, Zipline commenced operations in April 2019 from one distribution centre in Omenako and has expanded to six operational hubs, serving over 2500 health facilities with an average daily delivery of 250 medical commodities per distribution centre.
To help assuage obvious access challenges in the health sector, the government of Ghana has made several investments to mitigate the challenges associated with access to universal health coverage.
In 2019 when the Global challenges of Covid-19 hindered the even distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, Zipline’s robust system became a critical special purpose vehicle for the government’s vaccine inoculation drive.
Within minutes, several health facilities and inoculation centres were linked to vaccines and PPEs faster than known traditional logistics delivery methods.
Not only did vaccine stockout reduce significantly, but there was also a substantial increase in the types of medicines and supplies stocked at health facilities. This culminated in Ghana recording no Covid-19 vaccine expiration, largely due to the even distribution across the country.
Recently, the company has supported the Ghana Health Services to distribute 334,276 tablets of ivermectin to selected communities in the Ejura Sekyedumase, Sekyere Central, and Offinso North Districts, as part of an annual campaign of mass ivermectin tablets administration targeted at reducing the incidence of Onchocerciasis an infectious and parasitic disease categorized under Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).
These impressive efforts in using technology to disrupt how instant deliveries are made via drone have not gone unnoticed.
The company has received the U.S. Department of State’s Awards for Corporate Excellence (ACE) and has been recognised as the World’s biggest drone delivery network.
Ghana, of course, is currently the country with the largest national-scale drone delivery system globally. The government of Ghana is saving lots of money as drug expiries due to over-stocking by health facilities are significantly reducing as Zipline now plays the role of an even distributor in times of need.
Referrals, due to the non-availability of medical commodities, are reducing very fast within the operational communities of Zipline.
As the General Manager, he will oversee the day-to-day operations of the company, responsible for developing strategic plans for increasing profitability and developing business relations for business growth and look to foster good working relations with all stakeholders, including the government of Ghana.