Levit Nudi, the self-taught developer who created an app to track counterfeit drugs in Africa

Levit Nudi is the founder and research scientist at Notonlab Inc, an authenticity verification company in Kenya, where he focuses on developing new, innovative medical devices and software solutions.

A self-taught software developer and tech enthusiast, Nudi is credited for the creation of the mobile app Tambua. The app, which was launched in 2018 helps in identifying counterfeit and inferior prescription medications throughout Africa, Scidev.net reports.

“While dying from a disease is inevitable, dying from medicine never should be!” the Africa Storytelling Challenge winner said.

“We hope to save hundreds of thousands of lives lost every year in Africa alone due to consumption of counterfeit or substandard medicine,” said Nudi. 

“By giving consumers access to valuable product information, we hope to bring justice to the consumers as well as manufacturers who spend a lot of time and resources developing innovative products that counterfeiters unfairly compete against and tarnish the consumer perception of what those brands stand for,” Nudi added.

The app named after the Swahili word, which means identity, according to Nudi uses a bar code, QR code, and location tracking technology to monitor prescription medications throughout the supply chain, making it difficult for counterfeiters to access and copy them. 

Again, it allows consumers to scan and instantly identify products – even with limited access to the internet, which differentiates it from other existing solutions on the market.

“Between February 2018 and September 2018, 5,000 verification results were of government approved premises and some of the verified drugs,” Nudi said, according to  Scidev.net. “With an increasing number of successful verifications on our platform, we believe consumers are now able to make more informed decisions on what and where to buy medicine.”

Per data from the World Health Organization, one in ten medical products is substandard or falsified and likely responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of children from diseases such as malaria and pneumonia every year. And that threatens the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

With over five years of experience in various fields in the technology space and digital health, in particular, Nudi is always involved in community-development activities such as empowering women and girls in technology. 

He has also volunteered significant time and resources helping individuals and startups in science and technology to research and develop their prototypes and products.