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It’s not information that offering healthcare in Africa is problematic. Though requirements differ from nation to nation, African healthcare typically faces comparable points: not sufficient funding, too few medical doctors and low accessibility to well being providers.
Nonetheless, the struggle towards poor healthcare in Africa just isn’t so easy. Regardless of widespread poverty in Africa, 50 per cent of the continent’s healthcare bills are paid out of pocket by people. Nigeria isn’t any exception, as round 72 per cent of healthcare bills come from individuals’s pockets.
In the meantime, Nigeria’s reliance on its diaspora neighborhood is rising. Remittances from this demographic have helped pad up the nation’s dwindling international reserves within the final eight years. However not sufficient of those remittances go to healthcare. A 2018 research confirmed that solely 13 per cent of remittances had been spent on health-related bills. So it’s about time somebody leveraged this neighborhood to enhance native entry to high quality healthcare.
These info clarify why WellaHealth, certainly one of Nigeria’s main health-tech startups, is beginning the Healthsend Africa model, a enterprise inside Wellahealth to assist Nigerians within the diaspora #SendGoodHealthHome – a hashtag marketing campaign to introduce the product to the world whereas promoting the core thought of the product. By leveraging the monetary sources and goodwill of the diaspora neighborhood, WellaHealth seeks to bridge the hole between Nigerians dwelling overseas and healthcare providers of their residence nation. Its plan is easy: assist Nigerians within the diaspora pay for healthcare for his or her family members again residence.
“The important thing problem is entry to high quality healthcare for family members again residence in Nigeria,” Joseph Okoroafor, Advertising & Communications Lead for Wellahealth, mentioned. “Most Nigerians within the diaspora don’t belief the well being service suppliers within the nation, however would pitch their tents with a supplier in the event that they imagine that their family members will get the perfect care.”
The belief depletion right here exists due to Nigeria’s largely inefficient healthcare system. In 2019, Mr Abdullahi Mashi, the Everlasting Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Well being, mentioned that the nation’s well being sector had an annual deficit of $ 10 billion. Since then, not a lot has modified. So when individuals within the diaspora ship cash residence for healthcare, they’re nonetheless unsure that their family members will get enough remedy.
Now, WellHealth needs to take that fear off their desk and assist them ship good healthcare residence as an alternative. “This product solves the issue of transparency for Nigerians within the diaspora who’re blindsided by the precise price of care their family members obtain each time they ship cash,” Joseph Okoroafor mentioned. “This fashion, we’ll even have fewer individuals feeling responsible for leaving their family members again residence among the many diasporan thus bringing them peace of thoughts.”
Nigerians within the diaspora entry this service by establishing and topping their wallets through their web site, which they’ll use to entry WellaHealth’s varied healthcare providers. It’s just about like shopping for a present card and sending it to somebody again residence. Solely this time, the present is healthcare. So prospects can prime up their wallets which may then be utilized by their family members in Nigeria to buy real drugs, get medical health insurance, request laboratory checks and even schedule an everyday go to to test on their aged or sick family members. “Amongst a number of advantages, we’re providing them peace of thoughts. Nigerians within the diaspora can relaxation straightforward understanding that their family members are effectively catered for,” Dr. Ikpeme Neto, Wellahealth’s CEO, mentioned. “This fashion, in addition they get fund transparency, as they may know precisely how a lot will get spent on their family members.”
WellaHealth’s disruptive strategy to healthcare displays the expansion of telemedicine and health-tech startups in Nigeria. In line with a report by Salient Advisory, telemedicine, mixed with direct-to-consumer distribution, is the commonest kind of service provided by well being innovators based in the previous few years. These firms, by tech-enabled options, are altering the distribution mannequin for well being merchandise. “Wellahealth believes that telemedicine will proceed to develop,” Joseph Okoroafor added. “For this product, now we have invested in bot know-how to assist the efforts of medical doctors, particularly in relation to chat conversations for requests. This know-how helps present context earlier than being pushed to our medical doctors, who’re on standby 24/7.”
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