Trace everything
If a pack cannot be traced to a signed release, it does not leave the warehouse. No exceptions for busy months.
Home About the group
A pharmacy that grew a plant, a laboratory and a cold chain.
Lumen began as one community pharmacy in Surulere in 1998. It is now a group of five businesses that share one idea: you should be able to trace every pack you sell.
01What we do
Five businesses, one record.
Lumen Manufacturing makes everyday medicines, nutrition products and hospital consumables on three lines in Sagamu. Lumen Laboratories tests every batch in Ibadan before it can be sold. Lumen Distribution moves stock through four cold chain hubs to pharmacies, hospitals and programmes in all six regions.
Lumen Pharmacies runs nineteen community pharmacies, and Lumen Health Partners supplies hospitals, HMOs and non profit health programmes on scheduled contracts. Each business keeps its own team, but they all write to the same batch record, which is why a pharmacist in Kano can check a carton made in Ogun last Tuesday.
We do not sell prescription medicines online. Prescription items are supplied only to licensed pharmacies and hospitals, and dispensed in our pharmacies only against a valid prescription.
02Our story
Twenty eight years, one stop at a time.
- 1998
A pharmacy on Adeniran Close
Dr Folake Adeyemi, a community pharmacist, opens one shop in Surulere with a cold room in the back and a rule that every product is traced.
- 2004
Wholesale for neighbours
Twenty nearby pharmacies ask to buy through us. The trade desk is born, with a ledger and two vans.
- 2011
Sagamu plant
The first production line opens for oral rehydration salts and pain relief tablets, followed by liquids in 2013.
- 2016
The Ibadan laboratory
Quality control moves into its own building, with stability rooms and a microbiology suite.
- 2021
Cold chain hubs
Abuja, Port Harcourt and Enugu hubs open with chilled stores and temperature logged vans.
- 2026
Kano, and nineteen pharmacies
The Kano hub shortens the road north. The pharmacy family reaches nineteen shops in seven cities.
03What we hold to
Four rules that decide most arguments.
Say what we know
Our leaflets and our staff describe what a product is for and how to use it. We never promise outcomes.
Respect the cold
Temperature sensitive stock never rides without a logger. A broken cold chain means the stock is quarantined.
Pay people on time
Suppliers on day thirty, staff on the twenty fifth. Trust is a supply chain too.
04Leadership
The people who sign the records.
Dr Folake Adeyemi
Founder and group chair
Community pharmacist for 34 years. Still works a Saturday shift in Surulere each month.
Kelechi Okonkwo
Group managing director
Joined from a regional distribution firm in 2012 and built the trade desk into a national network.
Dr Aisha Bello
Director of quality
Pharmaceutical chemist. Signs off the release standards for every batch that leaves Sagamu.
Tunde Salami
Director of operations
Runs the plant, warehouse and the cold chain fleet. Engineer by training.
Ngozi Eze
Director of pharmacies
Leads the nineteen Lumen pharmacies and the graduate pharmacist programme.
Ibrahim Musa
Head of the north
Opened the Kano hub in 2026 and leads partnerships across the northern states.
Names and roles are invented for this demo.
05Governance
How decisions are checked.
Board
Seven members, three independent, including a retired hospital pharmacist and a chartered accountant. Meets every quarter.
Quality council
Chaired by the director of quality, with the power to stop any line or recall any batch without a board vote.
Safety desk
Reviews every side effect report within one working day and shares findings with the national regulator as required.
Audit
External audit each year, plus unannounced internal audits of every hub and pharmacy.
Visit Sagamu, or meet us in Surulere.
Plant tours run on the first Thursday of each month for trade partners, students and health officials.