Global Courant
It is no news that healthcare in Africa is problematic. While standards differ from country to country, African health care often faces similar problems: insufficient funding, too few doctors and poor access to health services.
However, the fight against poor healthcare in Africa is not that simple. Despite widespread poverty in Africa, 50 percent of the continent’s healthcare costs are paid out of pocket by individuals. Nigeria is no exception, such as about 72 percent of healthcare costs come from people’s pockets.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s dependence on its diaspora community is growing. Remittances from this demographic have helped fix the country’s dwindling foreign reserves over the past eight years. But not enough of these remittances go to healthcare. a Study from 2018 showed that only 13 percent of remittances were spent on health-related expenses. So it’s about time someone used this community to improve local access to quality health care.
These facts explain why WellaHealth, one of Nigeria’s leading health technology start-ups, is launching the Healthsend Africa brand, a company within Wellahealth to help Nigerians in the diaspora #SendGoodHealthHome – a hashtag campaign to bring the product to the world while also selling the core idea of the product. By leveraging the financial resources and goodwill of the diaspora community, WellaHealth seeks to bridge the gap between Nigerians living abroad and healthcare in their home country. The plan is simple: help Nigerians in the diaspora pay for healthcare for their loved ones back home.
“The main challenge is accessing quality health care for loved ones at home in Nigeria,” said Joseph Okoroafor, Marketing & Communications Lead for Wellahealth. “Most Nigerians in the diaspora do not trust the health care providers in the country, but lodge with a health care provider if they believe their loved ones are getting the best care.”
The depletion of confidence here is a result of Nigeria’s largely inefficient healthcare system. In 2019, Mr. Abdullahi Mashi, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, said that the country’s health sector is undergoing a annual deficit of $10 billion. Not much has changed since then. So when people in the diaspora send money home for health care, they are still unsure that their loved ones will receive adequate treatment.
Now WellHealth wants to take those worries off their table and help them send good health care home instead. “This product solves the problem of transparency for Nigerians in the diaspora who are blinded by the true cost of care their loved ones receive when they send money,” said Joseph Okoroafor. “This way we will also have fewer people who feel guilty for leaving their loved ones at home in the diasporan, giving them peace of mind.”
Nigerians in the diaspora can access this service by setting up and filling their wallets through their website, which they can use to access WellaHealth’s various health services. It’s like buying a gift card and sending it to someone’s home. Only this time the gift is health care. Thus, customers can top up their wallets which can then be used by their loved ones in Nigeria to buy real medicines, get health insurance, request lab tests or even schedule a regular visit to check on their elderly or ailing loved ones. “We offer them peace of mind, among other things. Nigerians in the diaspora can rest easy knowing that their loved ones are well cared for,” said Dr. Ikpeme Neto, CEO of Wellahealth. “This way they also get fund transparency because they know exactly how much is being spent on their loved ones.”
WellaHealth’s disruptive approach to healthcare reflects the growth of telemedicine and health technology start-ups in Nigeria. According to a report according to Salient Advisory, telemedicine, coupled with direct-to-consumer distribution, is the most common form of service offered by health innovators established in recent years. These companies are changing the distribution model for healthcare products through technology-enabled solutions. “Wellahealth believes that telemedicine will continue to grow,” added Joseph Okoroafor. “For this product, we invested in bot technology to support physician efforts, especially when it comes to request chat conversations. This technology helps provide context before it is passed on to our doctors, who are on standby 24/7.”
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