Chaotic supply chains are negatively impacting health, development and economic outcomes in Africa, according to Nigeria-based supply chain transformation expert Azuka Okeke. Speaking in Johannesburg recently Okeke, who is overseeing powerful healthcare supply chain interventions around the continent as regional director of the Africa Resource Centre (ARC), said a shortage of skilled supply chain professionals had been one of the big challenges on the continent. “It is a key driver of logistics underperformance in countries,” she said. “A functional supply chain ensures that health facilities are always stocked above a certain minimum level, ensuring the availability of products. Since logistics costs represent 20 to 40% of commodity costs, it follows that efficient local supply chain management can help to achieve a significant reduction in commodity price, too. If less money must go out of Africa to design, plan and implement healthcare supply chains, there will be more left to get medicines to the last mile.” She said in this regard strides were being made in Nigeria to professionalise supply chain management which was helping to improve healthcare delivery in the country. The ARC, an initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has spearheaded an integrated centre of excellence model for supply chain and logistics management, to help build more efficient and effective supply chain systems. “Our model encompasses short, medium and long-term elements to rapidly develop supply chain management and logistics expertise in Nigeria and beyond,” said Okeke. “Our key objectives are to rapidly strengthen and scale up in-country capacity, skills and expertise to meet local and regional needs, and to leverage and contribute to the global network focused on advancing supply chain excellence.”