Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Agency (EPSA) has nineteen branches located throughout the country and anchored together by a head office in the capital – Addis Ababa. As it supplies pharmaceuticals, chemical reagents, medical supplies and equipment to over 4,000 health facilities nationwide, it musters a big number of employees. It currently has 2,535 permanent employees and 314 contract employees. That is a total of 2,849 employees although the number of contract employees fluctuates from time to time.
As expected, there are some professions that have a special affinity with the Agency’s activities. Accordingly, 409 of EPSA’s staff members are pharmacists; 220 of them have bachelor’s degree or above while 189 are diploma holders. There are 26 laboratory technicians, 25 of whom have bachelor’s degree and above. The fourteen bio-medical engineers in EPSA have a minimum of bachelor’s degree. The total number of administrative staff is 620; 304 of them have bachelor’s degree and above while 316 have diplomas. Included in the Administrative section are directorates such as finance, human resources, public relations and IT. There are 30 health related professionals such as nurses and druggists. 24 of them have bachelor’s degree and above while 6 hold diplomas.
Despite the number of branches and their distribution across corners, EPSA staff members have a strong bond among them as their job entails they communicate on a daily basis. For instance, forecasting professionals at the head office communicate daily with their counter parts at branches to determine stock out status. These daily work engagements have, through time, grown to interpersonal relations that transcend formality.
