As an affirmation of the popular adage which says “quitters never win and winners never quit”, Vanguard Pharmacy, one of the rapidly growing retail outlets in the country, which was just a nominee at the 2019 Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Awards ceremony has eventually won the Most Improved Pharmaceutical Outlet of the Year 2021.
The award is one of the categories presented at the just concluded 2021 NHEA ceremony, held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos on 25 June 2021.
Speaking with Pharmanewsonline after the announcement of the winner in the category, an elated Pharm. Taofik Oladipupo Odukoya, founder and CEO, Vanguard Pharmacy Limited, remarked that the award is a testimony to the great work the company has been doing in the last three years, adding that the entire Vanguard Pharmacy Limited management and staff deserve the award.
“We are excited and motivated to continue to impact the healthcare space positively with our transformation and scaling that is ongoing. Our motivation is however not tied to any award, it is the numerous positive impacts we create through our work that is our greatest motivating factor”, he stated.
Recall Vanguard Pharmacy was nominated in another category – Pharmaceutical Retail Outlet of The Year category at the 2019 NHEA, but couldn’t scale through until her emergency this year.
While speaking, Dr Anthony Omolola, chairman, Advisory Board of Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award 2021, said ”We are very proud of how Lagos State Government and Ministry of Health responded to the outbreak of COVID-19.
” NHEA is a special award because we do our work and deeds diligently to select those who impacted the healthcare space in Nigeria.
“We aim to become the best in Africa and working toward all over the world,” he said.
He added that in March 2021, nominations were called for, which lasted for two months.“We received over 20,000 nominations and the NHEA jury shortlisted over 100 nominees made up of organisations and individuals both from the public and private sectors for voting.
” The NHEA jury made a shortlist based on published criteria for each set of awards for online voting on the NHEA voting portal.
“We also evaluated claims of nominees simultaneously across the country.
” In a bid to continuously improve our current process to meet international best practice, there was tremendous use of technology with improved security features,” Omolola said.
According to Dr Sola Alabi, the project coordinator, the award is aimed at recognising and celebrating the achievements of personalities and organisations who have contributed immensely to the growth and development of the Nigerian health sector in the past year.
He continued, NHEA, the Oscar of Nigeria healthcare is supported by PharmAccess Foundation. The award is organised by Global Health Project and Resources (GHPR) in collaboration with Anadach Group, USA.
The ceremony saw the Lagos State Government emerged as the Most Responsive COVID-19 State Government of the Year while, Prof. Akin Abayomi, its commissioner for health bagged the award for the Most Outstanding COVID-19 State Health Commissioner of the Year.
