Barely 2 years old, Nigeria-based blockchain-powered anti-counterfeiting startup, Chekkit is no longer on the same pedestal with its founding class. In a world filled with unstoppable opportunities, Chekkit is repeating what the San Fransisco-headquartered Zipline is doing in Rwanda and Ghana, but in a different way. The difference is, however, never in the ambition but in the products offered. While Zipline, in a $12.5 million deal with the Ghanaian government, flies series of drones over Ghana’s airspace, delivering essential healthcare services to Ghanaians in need of them, Chekkit has a new impetus in Afghanistan, the famously war-torn country. 

“The Afghan Ministry of Public Health had been looking for effective ways to verify the authenticity and effectiveness of drugs that are being imported into the country,” said Dare Odumade, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Chekkit about a new partnership between the Afghan Ministry of Public Health and Chekkit. “ Chekkit has provided them with a way to authenticate the drugs at the point of entry into the country and also at point of purchase.”

The magic of the partnership is however not in any extra bogus statements further disclosed in the press release about the deal, such as this by Odumade: 

“Through this partnership, we will provide the pharma companies involved with valuable consumer insights and a reward programme to encourage purchase and verification by buyers, as well as give the government a transparent view of the pharmaceutical market. On completion of a successful pilot, we envisage our technology being deployed across the board for all meds coming into Afghanistan.”

The magic lies in the fact that unlike Zipline — with its US coloration and pride — Chekkit is defying odds and the not-so-shiny image of its home country, Nigeria, to establish roots in a country outside of Africa. 

First, A Look At The Partnership Deal

With the new partnership, Chekkit becomes Africa’s first healthtech startup to gain foot in South Asia. Under the terms of the new partnership, which begins with a three-month pilot, Chekkit will utilise its product authentication technology to track and verify all drugs sold in the country. Chekkit’s smart labels will be attached to 80,000 pharmaceutical products sold in the Afghan market, allowing for verification of these drugs before purchase or use. Chekkit will also provide an oversight capability for the Health Ministry by deploying special hand-held devices that can be used to verify the authenticity of the products at the point of entry into the country. 

Birthed in 2018, at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana, Chekkit’s platform tracks product movement and the parties involved in the transfer of products from warehouse to distributor, and on to the final consumer. The company also produces tamper-proof unique ID labels, either as QR codes or numeric codes, which can be placed on premium packaged food and beverage products for supply chain and consumer feedback tracking.

Although Chekkit could pride itself as being the first African healthcare startup in Afghanistan, the credit for its entry into the country will go to Fantom, a network of blockchains that provides ledger services to businesses and applications, based in Seoul, South Korea. This is because Chekkit’s solution is deployed on Fantom’s DAG network, and although talks with the Afghan government were already initiated by Fantom, Chekkit’s latest partnership deal also has Fantom as a co-signatory.

Read also: Why Lagos Is The Most Valuable Startup Ecosystem In Africa

Africa-made To The World

Chekkit’s inroad into Afghanistan has confirmed that African startups can make inroads into offshore countries if they worked harder and with the right network, collaboration and resilience. Few African startups have been able to achieve this feat. Although Jumia, the Africa-focused ecommerce company, had shot the continent’s startup ecosystem into international fame on the New York Stock Exchange last year, the company has no immediate plans to launch operations in the US. Again, although Egypt’s e-hailing startup SWVL has expanded to territories outside the shores of Africa, it has not yet gone beyond South Asia, or Middle East And North African region where it has some nuanced belonging. Cross-border payment startups such as Flutterwave, Paga and others are only focused on African remittances or African merchants doing business across borders. A higher level of global connectedness will therefore help African startups integrate into the global fabric, thereby raising their level of performance. Chekkit is one of the few that have proved that this is achievable. 

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer