Mombasa Pharmacist: I found business success far from home

Charles Wafula has always been fascinated by the idea of running a business. It was, therefore, rather clear to him from early on that he would become an entrepreneur.

What he did not foresee is that his passion to open his own business would take him so far from his home in Tulwet, Trans Nzoia County.

Today, Mr Wafula owns three pharmacies and a clinic at the Coast — Chesto Pharmacy, Glory Pharmacy and Guraya Pharmacy in Mombasa, and Sere Medical Clinic in Wundanyi.

“My mother taught me business from an early age. She sold chang’aa, and used the money she made to take us to school,” said Wafula.

From his mother, he learnt about financial management, marketing a business, managing suppliers, and how to take care of your customers — the basics of business.

On the days he did not have to go to school, Wafula would help his mother sell the liquor, though it was illegal.

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“From her struggles, I was educated through primary and secondary schools, where I had a lot of interest in studying business courses. However, I was also interested in medicine, so I decided to take a course in pharmacy, but with business in mind.”

Thinking it would be easy to set up a business after completing his studies, Wafula signed up for a diploma in pharmacy, and then went on to get a degree in the same at the Kampala International University.

After graduating, he went back home, did odd jobs, and when he had saved up enough to set up a business, he opened his first pharmacy in Kitale in 2006.

However, it did not do well for a variety of reasons. Chief among them was that he was running his operation illegally, as he did not have enough capital to meet Pharmacy and Poisons Board requirements.

Inadequate capital

He had started the business with only Sh100,000, which was way below the requisite capital allowed by the board.

“Truthfully speaking, I operated for one year without a licence because I did not have the Sh500,000 required before a pharmacy can be registered. I played cat and mouse with the authorities until I got registration,” Wafula confessed.

He then opened another pharmacy, still near Kitale, but says even this business did not do well. He attributes this to the fact that it was his home area, and “a prophet is never respected at home”. The two pharmacies had runs of profits and losses.

With these mixed fortunes, Wafula closed the businesses and sought employment. He got a job with a pharmaceutical company and was posted to the firm’s Voi outlet in 2012.

But the bug to go into business bit again, and he began to research the viability of setting up his own small pharmacy in Voi.

Using his savings from his job, and with the money he was able to salvage from his two failed businesses, he set up pharmacy in Sophia Estate, Voi.

“Within a year, I was able to open yet another branch in Voi. In 2015, I set up a clinic in Wundanyi,” said Wafula.

But even with three pharmacies and a clinic to his name, he is still looking to expand his business and hopes to open more outlets.

Main challenges

One of the main challenges Wafula has had to contend with in setting up his business is the regulatory requirements in the pharmaceutical industry. Because of the sensitivity of the business, registration is not quick or easy.

Getting professionals to run his outlets has also been difficult, as has surviving the cut-throat competition in the industry.

“One of the ways through which we have managed to keep our heads up is by opening early and closing late. This has seen us gain a reputation for being reliable,” said Wafula. He opens his branches at 5am and closes at midnight.

Wafula, who has 15 people in his employ, added that price is also a key differentiator in the business, and said he keeps the mark-up on his products at a bare minimum to attract clients. Even then, he rakes in an average of Sh20,000 in profit a day, which works out to about Sh600,000 a month.

He has also added consumables like cosmetics, jewellery, soft drinks and mobile money transfer services to get more people to walk through his doors.

His advice to entrepreneurs? “Running a business takes patience. And if you respect your business — that is, you give it the time it requires, invest in the resources it needs, and so on — it will respect you back.”

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