The mobile phone is one of the biggest social equalizers on the African continent. More than 90% of people use a simple mobile phone. We believe that mobile technology is on the verge of disrupting healthcare in Africa in a way that none of us can fully imagine yet. The mobile revolution in Africa offers huge opportunities to tackle Africa’s poor health statistics through new forms of pre-payment and risk pooling.

Developing and applying mobile technology to make the healthcare market more inclusive has become an increasingly important part of our approach. We have been developing and applying mobile payment innovations in real‐life settings in Kenya since 2013, when we first tested the concept of the mobile health wallet: a personal wallet on the mobile phone, dedicated exclusively to healthcare‐related expenses. The mobile health wallet uniquely combines demand and supply innovations with the potential to revolutionize healthcare and financing of healthcare on one digital platform.

The digitalization of data and financial flows allows us to strengthen and accelerate our tools and services, and to reach and support a growing group of healthcare providers seeking to improve their care and business. This benefits patients and improves the attractiveness for investors, donor organizations and governments to work with and invest in these providers.

Among others, we have co-initiated a digital platform that connects all players in the market – bringing transparency, accountability and direct access to and for end-users. This mobile technology makes it possible to connect people, healthcare providers and payers such as family members or donor agencies at close-to-zero transaction costs, building trust and a new kind of solidarity. It empowers consumers, improves their financial protection, supports better quality of care and generates local and international financing for health. The transparency of this technology helps build a new kind of healthcare solidarity. It allows us to take our approach of stimulating demand and supply with the aim of attracting healthcare investments to a new level.

In Kenya, this technology was rolled out in 2016 under the brand name M-TIBA (see below). We are currently working with a growing number of public and private partners to develop digital services and products in the different countries where we work.