The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Stores

  • Task force shuts medicine stores

    Ondo State Joint Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Food at the weekend mopped up fake drugs.

    Liable patent medicine stores were sealed off.

    The task force comprising officials of the Ministry of Health, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), was constituted last Tuesday.

    It was among others saddled with the responsibility of reducing fake drugs.

    The task force was empowered to seal off premises of companies, which contravened the rules governing the practice of patient medicine and pharmaceutical stores.

    The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Taye Oni, inaugurating the task force, vowed to make the state uninhabitable for those dealing in harmful drugs.

    Some of the stores shut include  Shessy Patient Medicine Store on Hospital Road, Akure where dangerous and controlled drugs, such as Flunitrazepalm (Swinol), Misoprostol tablets without NAFDAC number, Analgin and 200mg Tramadol, dangerous to health, stored in an unconducive environment, were found.

    The task force also sealed off TOKs Leve Patient Medicine Store, 17, Ijomu Street, Akure, for flaunting the rules of operation and possession of harmful drugs.

    The Chairman of the task force, Gbenga Lasekan, blamed the infiltration of dangerous drugs without manufacturers’ names and addresses into the market on porous borders.

    He said the culprits would be prosecuted.

  • Online stores unveil ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ scheme

    To enable comsumers have access to their needs despite economic downturn, some online stores have come up with interest-free financing schemes. TONIA ‘DIYAN writes.

    Year 2016 has witnessed many economic challenges that have caused untold hardship for Nigerians. In addition, some workers have not been paid their salaries for some months, while others have benn forced to resign from their jobs. Inflation and cost of Forex have reduced workers’disposable income.

    However, despite such problems, people still need essential items to make life comfortable.

    Against this backdrop, Western- Mall Limited, an online auction website and some others have introduced a product financing scheme – ‘Buy Now Pay Later.’

    The scheme allows users to buy items from the website and pay in instalments at the cost of the items in the market – no fees, interest or any other charges attached. It is open to salary earners as well as business men.

    Shoppers can now buy phones, laptops, television sets, refrigerators, generators, home theatres, home and kitchen appliances and cars, among others, online with the buy now pay later service.

    The service gives salary earners a leeway to pay for items of choice at their convenience without additional charges unlike loan facilities on which one pays interest.

    Explaining the reason behind the service, Mr Nosa Idehen, founder, WesternMall Nigeria, said the service is aimed at meeting the purchasing needs of Nigerians and giving people more purchasing power to buy items of their choice online.

    He said: “At WesternMall, we also offer soft loan services that allow individuals use household items, laptops and phones as collateral.”

  • Online stores, limelight for retailers

    It is no longer news that the internet is known to break barriers of any kind, obstructing communication, trading and all other productive activities, hence, retailers and traders have being advised to revolutionise with this trend as almost everything including the good and the bad is now done online and this can be good for business no matter the kind of good being sold.

    Trading through online platforms which include online stores, social media and the likes help retailers have a wider reach to their prospective customers both home and abroad. This is because the barrier of distance has been successfully broken by these online platforms making it possible to strike business deals, trade and shop with known and unknown persons that one could have never met.

    Also, online platforms help to create a mutual relationship between the traders and the buyers, most especially social media like Whatsapp, Facebook, Skype, Twitter, Instagram. These social media have made the buyer and seller have a first-hand relationship, most especially a one man trader unlike online stores that have customer care hotline to enable them get feedback from their customers. This feedback is what allows these stores know the minds of their customers and how their services are viewed by their customers.

    Unlike the traditional market, traders are unable to know how their customers feel about goods and services rendered because if these customers conceive it as unsatisfactory after a first visit; they decide not to patronise such trader again without such trader knowing. But with the help of online platforms, customers are free and able to voice out. Traders then use these feedbaks to improve their services and maintain a cordial relationship with their customers.

    Convenience and time saving factor is another reason why traders and retailers should move with the trend of online trading. Instead of having to shop in muddy and crowded markets, online platforms have made it possible for buyers to order for their desired goods in the comfort of their homes. Also, the fact that one does not have to force his or her way through the crowd to various stores to find one’s desired good leading to so much time being spent, the time spent is now reduced as online shopping is determined by the speed of one’s network.

    Traders who have online stores are at a higher advantage as they become easily accessible because of their activeness in the virtual society and traditional market making them accessible to all class of the people in the society.

  • MTN mulls outsourcing stores

    MTN mulls outsourcing stores

    • May axe 800 jobs

    MTN Group Ltd. Has agreed to outsource its retail operations to Brightstar Corporation and 800 jobs may be affected as it seeks to cut costs, according to a source close to the carrier.

    MTN, which has more than 220 million subscribers in 22 countries including Nigeria and other African countries and the Middle East, has axed jobs in South Africa to reduce costs. The carrier is also trying to boost sales to corporate customers to compete with Vodacom Group Ltd., the country’s market leader in terms of subscriber numbers.

    Under the deal, Brightstar will take on management of the mobile-phone company’s chain of shops selling handsets and services in its home country, South Africa and may take on some of the MTN staff, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the contract has yet to be announced. Miami-based Brightstar will also operate most of Johannesburg-based MTN’s distribution and logistics operations in the country, building on a services agreement signed with the continent’s biggest wireless operator in 2011.

    Erik Hofmeyer, a spokesman for closely held Brightstar, declined to comment when contacted by phone, referring questions to MTN..

    South African revenue declined 3.9 per cent to 38.9 billion rand ($3.2 billion) last year after the communications regulator cut the amount MTN and Vodacom can charge smaller competitors to end calls on their networks. That compared with a 6.4 per cent gain in total sales to 146 billion rand.

  • Lagos seals 40 illegal drugs stores

    •To combat menace of illegal drug store operators

    No fewer than 39 illegal drugs stores in Alapere, Magodo and Ikosi-Isheri environs – all at Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area and Kosofe Local Government, have been sealed by men and officials of the Lagos State Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods.

    Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr Yewande Adeshina broke the news at the weekend in Lagos.

    She explained that government’s resolve to streamline the activities of operators in the drug sector was borne out of its zeal to stop the inherent dangers associated with the peddling of fake, substandard and expired drugs by unauthorised and unregistered drug and pharmaceutical outlets.

    Said she: “In furtherance of the state government’s commitment to ridding the state of the menace of illegal drug store operators in the state, we cannot fold our arms and do nothing in respect of their excesses. That is why we will not relent in our drive to sanitise the drug distribution system in Lagos, hence the mandate of the Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods”.

    The Special Adviser wondered why the people still chose to stay on the wrong side of the law, adding that the provisions of the law as stipulated by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria Act of 1992 and the Registration of Pharmaceutical Premises Regulation Law of 2005 outlines the requirements for the registration and renewal of pharmaceutical premises, culpability and punishment for offenders.

    “The provision of the pharmaceutical laws stipulates that pharmaceutical premises cannot be located in motor parks and environment where commercial activities take place like market places, kiosks, road-side stores and containers and the law also frowns at pharmaceutical stores standing and growing very close together,”Adeshina noted.

    She listed the sealed drug stores as including Viewland Pharmaceutical Ltd at No 5,Palace Street, Ogudu; Goodhealth Supermarket at No 13, Agboyi road, Ogudu; E. Emodobi Patent Medicine store at No 15, Old Olowora Street, Isheri; Max Supermarket and Medicine store at No 23, Agboyi road, Ogudu; Sadus Pharmacy at No 51, Olowora road, Ogudu; Festina Pharmacy Ltd at No 2, Ogun River road, Isheri; Celens Pharmacy at Isheri Market Plaza and Spacon Healthcare at No 19, Ogudu road.

    Others are Tolex Pharmaceutical Ltd at No 44, Ikosi road, Ketu; Amexco Pharmacy at No 1, Ikosi road, Ketu; Igba Stores at No 11, Oluyombo Street, Ikosi; Mr Kelechi store at No 10 Odun  Street, Ikosi; Ademola Ologunagba at No 31,Oluwalogbon Street, Ikosi; Benkeson Pharmaceutical at No 16, Anibaba street, Ikosi; Danest stores at No 17, Jimoh Balogun street Ikosi; Patent Medicine store at No 6, Dairo street,Ikosi and two unnamed stores at Nos 73,Oluyombo and 35, Jimoh Balogun streets.

    Dr Adeshina noted that the affected shops were sealed for offences ranging from sales of drugs without licence from the regulatory authority; failure to relocate from a market area and adherence to the mandated distance between a patent medicine shop and market place as stipulated by the law; and sales of counterfeit and fake drugs amongst others.

    The Special Adviser advised anybody interested in selling medicine to liaise with the Pharmaceutical Inspectorate Unit of the Ministry of Health, the legitimate authorizing body for Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors License (PPMVL), located on the ground floor of Block 8, Old Secretariat, in Ikeja, just as she urged those interested in importation, distribution and sales of drugs to get their premises licensed by the appropriate authority, the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria (PCN).

    The raid was conducted in conjunction with the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Federal Taskforce, National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Pharmaceutical Inspectors Committee (PIC), and Officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force from the state command.

  • Stationery Stores confront Future Stars in friendly

    Stationery Stores confront Future Stars in friendly

    Stationery Stores Football Club of Lagos will on Tuesday morning play their last friendly match before the beginning of the second round of the Nigeria National League.They will  take on Future Stars Football Academy.

    The match will hold at the Ikeja Cantonment playing ground where the Future Stars Academy usually  train. The kick off is fixed for 8:00am.

    According to Fatai Amoo, Head Coach of Stationery Stores, the match is organised  to put the team in competitive mood ahead of their South West Derby against Shooting Stars Football Club of Ibadan.

    “Since the mid-break of the league we have been training and playing friendly matches so that the technical crew can correct the lapses noticed before the break is corrected for the beginning of the second round. I am very glad the boys have been responding well to the corrections. So, playing Future Stars a youthful side with so many talented and skillful boys is another way looking closely at the players before our next game.” Amoo popularly known as Arsenal stated.

    On his part, Jamiu Hamzat, coach of Future Stars, said playing a big team like Stationery Stores FC is an opportunity for his young boys to grow further and learn more on the game from their more experienced and exposed colleagues.

    He said what is important to him as a coach is not the outcome of the friendly match but what his boys can gain from playing against such a big club , adding that it can only aid their growth in the game.