Boluke Pharmacy is one of the leading pharmacy stores in Nigeria. The journey that started 27years ago saw this amiable woman through her career in life as a successful Pharmacist who has seen it all through her life experience. Talking about what she went through before Boluke Pharmacy became a household name, she spoke exclusively with City People’s SUNDAY ADIGUN on how she single-handedly raised money to start her business 27 years ago and how she came about the name Boluke. Below are excerpts of the interview.
You look so energetic and agile. What is the secret?
Let me just say I love what I’m doing, I love serving, I love my work. I’m even an Usher in my church.
People hear Boluke Pharmarcy everywhere. Tell us about the lady behind BOLUKE Pharmarcy?
My name is KEMI GBEMISOLA ADEYEYE. I’m in my late 50s. I have siblings though they live in the UK. I’m the only one living in Nigeria. I feel better here because I always know I’m needed here, because in the UK they have everything unlike here that there are lapses in everything. Some years ago we did blood pressure monitoring test for free on one of our anniversary days. We were seeing people with BP 300/167, do you know normal blood pressure is 120/80 but 300/167’s high and I remembered I asked the woman, how come in this age that you don’t know that your BP is too high. She said he has never checked it before. I asked her what brought her here and she said because she saw a large crowd and people told her its Free that was why she came. When she said that, we gave her some drugs prescribed by doctors for her and after a month she came to me and said “mummy it was as if the drug was the one that put it there (In Yoruba) that she used to experience something in her body thinking that its old age, but ever since she took the drug the thing has disappeared.
So we counseled her and advised her to go to the hospital and she is been well managed now at Ifako General Hospital. We come across a lot of ignorant people in Agege, even some have gone to church to do Thanksgiving as soon as they observe their B.P goes down thinking it has been resolved and some have offered sacrifices having been told someone is behind their illness, So I’ve seen all kinds of situations like that, we have other branches but I know that I’m needed more in Pen Cinema, than Ikeja to be precise. People in Ikeja are learned, they check their BP regularly, and they are doing well. They know that they need to do exercise. They know what to eat at the right time, but not in this area.
Sometime ago I was supposed to do sugar test for a man. After explaining to the man the series of Blood sugar test we have, I just decided to ask him and I said daddy have you eaten, he said he took 3 puff puff. You can imagine, an elderly man and for somebody who is diabetic should have known he should not be eating such. So I realized that there is still a lot of work to be done in this area. Its even worse at our Isale Oja branch, because they always bring their cases back here. It’s like educating the people. I educate them. At Boluke it’s not as if we always have much crowd as such, I always take my time to attend to one person about what to do and what not to do. So in summary most of the work we do at Boluke is COUNSELING, especially Lifestyle modification.
Tell me about your family and Educational background?
I’ve always wanted to be a doctor. But one year I had to do my A- level twice. My result was not released. So I lost a year. So you know youths are always in a hurry. I said since. have lost a year let me look for another course, and I was looking for a shorter course that is medically oriented. So I’m enjoying Pharmacy I also have a big farm, I went to University of Ibadan and graduated in 1985. I also did Owner Management Programme at Lagos Business School.
Lets talk about the journey of 27 years. How did it start?
Because I started in my late 20s, my mother was not in support. She did not want me to set up a Pharmacy. She said Kemi, it’s more than that; but I was not interested because once I make up my mind to do something there is no turning back. But she would say business is more than that. You are still young. She wants me to work in a hospital and when I retire I will have my own pharmacy, I did my internship in a hospital, I did my youth service in a hospital. and what pharmacist do in those days, they always sit down and just write how drugs are to be used. I said I will not do that for the rest of my life and I did not have money. You know what I did? I traveled to UK to go and work, not as a Pharmacist, I worked as a Cleaner, as a career, auxiliary nurse in quote. I worked with old people and some of them were so old, they pee on their body, poo on their body. My job is to clean them up even as a certified Pharmacist. In fact I was rewarded for that because I always clean them in African way, proper brushing. That was how I got money to start Boluke Pharmacy. When I came back, I got a very small shop. My mother was not happy. She said how can you pay such a huge amount of money for this small shop. But I was looking at the location, but my mother did not know, she didn’t understand why I paid the money and I started, though it was so rough.
What were the challenges you faced at the initial stage of starting off with all the money you made from UK?
I will start with what led me to decide to open a Pharmacy at that age. When I finished from school, I wanted to work with a company, but in those days, it was common if you don’t sleep with them, you won’t get a job. The first person, second, third and fourth, it was on the fifth person that, the message sank that its most likely I’m not going to get a job without sleeping with the Manager, even though they were are all pharmacists, and I said, “Lord what can I do that I will not need to sell myself. What can I do that my efforts and ability will be rewarded, and I will be fulfilled”? I sat down, I thought about community pharmacy but I didn’t have money. That was why I traveled to the UK. That was the genesis of the whole thing.
It would have been pleasing to work with a reputable company for 4 to 5 years before starting, but because of what was going on at that time, I had to find a way to sort myself out.
Now back to the challenges. When I started in those days, there were lots of Ibo boys at that Mosalasi Agege that were selling drugs and they were getting from the companies directly, but I was just starting, I did not even have enough Capital as at that time. I had used all my money to pay rent, though I was in a premium location. But there was no money to buy market in bulk. So the price I was buying was the price the wholesalers sold them. So when I realized that people were complaining and prefer to go to them. I realize that I needed to do something. It was an initial challenge and I sat down, I said what can I do? I realized that I’m a pharmacist. The edge I have I will use it. When customers come, I counsel them, I teach them their diet, I teach them exercise, I added value to what I was doing and before long, I was having a good amount of customers, and that time companies started calling me and I started buying from them directly, so I was able to get at a good price and sell at their price with the value I added to it, that was how I was able to tackle that.
Wow, let’s talk about your marriage, because listening to your story, your husband did not start with you, but now both of you are running the business. How did he come on board?
Truly, I had already started before I met my husband. As a matter of fact, at one time whenever he finished from work, he would come and stay with me. Let me tell you one funny thing about my marriage and the time I was courting. I had agreed that this man is good for me. Suddenly another man came, tall, handsome and rich; I was like wow this man is good for me and was thinking how to set my husband up. I wanted to find Fault in him, I searched for fault I did not see, so I said indeed this is my husband. Now we are married for over 25years. So I thank God for my husband and for the choice I made, because I married the bone of my bone and the flesh of my flesh.
So how do you manage your home, I can see you are a busy woman?
Of course we are together in the business, as I’m talking to you now he’s at Ikeja Branch.
How did he come on board?
It got to a point I wanted to ask him to join me but I didn’t know how to approach him. So I got on my knees and I started praying talking to God about it, and then he told me one day, Kemi you are the one doing most of this thing, because I’ve always been taking care of family financial issues before he even got to know about it. And he said to me you have never even asked me about my salary, you are the one paying for everything, I think we should work together, that was how he joined me and since then it’s been awesome. I really enjoy that Grace.
How did you come about your business name?
Thank you, you know when you want to start business you are a novice, I was thinking of the name to use and one of my Uncle said, you must use common name, like kings Pharmacy, Queen pharmacy, but when I took it for registration, it has already been used, and you know I’m not married then, I just taught of my siblings name meanwhile we were just three, one is Bode, the other one is tolu and I’m Kemi, So I picked Bo from Bode, Lu from Tolu and Ke from my own name kemi. That was how we formed Boluke, so it a combination of names.
Boluke Pharmacy has become a household name. What has been the recognition so far from the Government, corporate bodies and individuals?
To God be the Glory, at one point they wanted to make me Iyalaje ipanada in Agege which I rejected, because I know my calling, I don’t want any distraction and I’m not so sure a Christian should go into that. They also wanted to hold a coronation ceremony and they wanted me to be the Mother of the day and I also rejected it. Asides that, there have been different recognitions from companies even from the Police. And from my people I get a lot. I remember one day I went to the market, I did not pay a penny for what I bought that day They were just calling themselves, Boluke is in the market and so on.
So what is happening on the 26th ma?
We intend to celebrate our 27th anniversary, whereby we would be giving gifts to all our customers by the grace of God. We have been doing it, because every of our customer is a winner.
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