Private sector giants collaborate on healthcare financing

The quality healthcare delivery of a country is directly proportional to the quantum of financing the sector can attract. In Nigeria, healthcare delivery is still abysmally low as the sector attracts relatively low funding. In most cases, even the little funding it attracts from government is stolen by corrupt officials. Poor quality healthcare delivery in […]

The quality healthcare delivery of a country is directly proportional to the quantum of financing the sector can attract. In Nigeria, healthcare delivery is still abysmally low as the sector attracts relatively low funding. In most cases, even the little funding it attracts from government is stolen by corrupt officials.
Poor quality healthcare delivery in the country has been costing thousands of lives that would have been productive to the economy.
Also, because of the low level of investments in healthcare delivery, a lot of Nigerians embark on medical tourism abroad. Statistics by the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Uche Orji, show that about 30,000 Nigerians spend $1 billion annually on medical tourism.
While, in the past, healthcare funding was an exclusive preserve of the government, wealthy and influential Nigerians have started galvanising support for private sector-driven healthcare funding. The sector, in its multiple dimensions that include conglomerates, small and medium scale entrepreneurs, private providers, non-government organisations and social enterprises, is an essential actor in catalysing, promoting and investing in innovative approaches and social enterprises. It also has distinctive assets, broad reach, capabilities and capital to offer a sound health system that encapsulates management capabilities, innovative financing, mobile technology, supply chain and logistics infrastructure. Indeed, several African countries have ridden a wave of locally appropriate private sector-driven innovations to accelerate progress and expand access to quality health services, especially for the poor.
Leading this initiative in Nigeria is a coalition of private sector funders of healthcare through the Private Sector Health Alliance (PSHAN) initiative. The private sector coalition is led by successful entrepreneurs and technocrats like Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Mr. Jim Ovia, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and Mrs. Sola David Borha.
At the inaugural Health Innovation and Impact Investment Summit (HIIIS), the investors generally observed that there was the critical need to bridge the gap between spurring innovations, shaping health markets and attracting innovative financing for scaling up promising healthcare innovations in the country.
The investors are critically analysing the role of both the private and public sectors in addressing health market failures and providing venture capital and new market capacity to cultivate sustainable healthcare enterprises. What form and structure of financing and other support is needed to unlock the potential of the private health sector in Nigeria and bridge the financing gap needed to meet demand for improvement in the quality of care is also being analysed.
The recently held HIIIS, which coincided with the Health Innovation Challenge Awards by the PSHAN, is one of those practical steps to fund healthcare innovation though private sector intervention. The winning innovators who received prizes were picked from a poll of 10 finalists who were chosen from over 1000 applications.
The design boot camp was to identify promising innovations which demonstrate social merit, commercial visibility and scalability, and which address critical challenges in Nigeria’s health sector.
Ovia, co-chair of the PSHAN and chairman of the Zenith Bank, was emphatic that the private sector has the potential to expand access to healthcare services, improve quality of care and complement government’s efforts at addressing health system challenges in the country.
Dr. Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, PSHAN chief executive officer, explained that the Health Innovation Award is aimed at making innovations in the health sector become more visible.
Mr. Herbert Wigwe, the chief executive of Access Bank and co-chair, the Nigeria Health Innovation Marketplace, noted that healthcare has been all about government and treated like a social welfare in which the private sector should not be involved. “This should not be so,” he declared.
Five innovators were given awards at the event. “They would save lives. If we have identified 12, why can’t we have 100 or 200 and more innovations?” Wigwe wondered.
Innovations that won financing support included Fyodor Urine Malaria Test (UMT), an innovative product specialised device developed to monitor the effectiveness of malaria treatment by rapid urine testing. It won the top prize of $100,000 at the inaugural Health Innovation Challenge Awards.   
The first runner-up, a Service (MDaaS), won $50,000 for its innovative method in reducing the cost of acquiring medical devices by providing hospitals with a range of acquisition options and world-class support services. MdaaS has provided three private primary healthcare centres with over 10 devices such as ultrasounds, X-rays, patient monitors, ventilators and defibrillators through direct sales since its launch into the Nigerian market in September 2015.
The second runner-up, the e-HEAL (Electronic Health Education in Any Language) was awarded $30,000 for its innovative kit that uses a combination of graphics, audio technology and solar-powered pen to communicate health information in local Nigerian languages to illiterate families in rural areas without access to doctors.
The third runner-up, the Mobile Health Insurance program (mHealth), got the prize money of $20,000. mHealth provides social and affordable health insurance plans to all mobile network subscribers in Nigeria for as low as N35 per day.
The last winner was ‘Omo mi,’ which was awarded the prize money of $15,000. ‘Omo mi,’ which in Yoruba means ‘my child,’ is an android-based mobile application used by pregnant women to monitor their health and that of their unborn babies.
It is hoped that if these efforts are sustained and some more private sector funds come into healthcare financing in Nigeria, the country’s healthcare delivery system would be the better for it.