MTN Partners Fintech to Drive Universal Health Coverage

Vanessa Obioha

Leading telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria (MTNN) recently signed a partnership agreement with health fintech company, CarePay Nigeria to jointly grow health insurance coverage among millions of Nigerians.

Through the partnership, MTN subscribers will connect to CarePay’s digital ‘healthcare marketplace’ to significantly improve access to affordable quality healthcare in Nigeria.

Over the next few weeks, both parties will collaborate with accredited health insurers and healthcare providers to roll out a digital ‘healthcare marketplace’ accessible via web and app, for distribution and administration of a wide range of retail health schemes encompassing innovative bundled health schemes as well as traditional health insurance plans.

“We consider this important partnership as fundamental to improving Nigeria’s health indices by improving access to affordable quality healthcare for all Nigerians,” said CarePay Nigeria’s Executive Chairman, Amaechi Ndili.

“With the convergence of various technologies including mobile telephony, cloud, internet, data and AI, it is inevitable that these convergences will work to the benefit of the entire healthcare ecosystem.

“MTNN’s strong brand and reach combined with CarePay’s proven healthcare technology provides the perfect, trust-based platform that allows seamless transactions between patients, healthcare providers and health insurers.”

Many Nigerians lack awareness about the benefits and importance of health insurance coverage. The distribution of health insurance products in Nigeria is inefficient and costly.

This leads to millions of Nigerians, mostly those within the informal sector, having no health coverage whatsoever – relying mostly on cash payments at point of care, consequently delaying access to care, or resorting to poor quality substitutes due to lack of resources.

Furthermore, millions of Nigerians are pushed into poverty each year due to catastrophic healthcare expenditure.

The partnership will leverage CarePay’s health benefits management platform, which is already widely used by over five million users and over 4,000 healthcare providers in Nigeria and Kenya, and MTNN’s ‘last mile’ capabilities as a leading mobile network operator, to achieve improved awareness and efficient distribution of health insurance products to all Nigerians, and effective administration of health schemes by healthcare providers and health insurers.

Speaking about the partnership, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN Nigeria Plc, said, “It gives us so much joy to make quality healthcare affordable and accessible to millions of Nigerians through this partnership.

“By simply dialing a short code, our customers can now access a plethora of health services. Also, stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem, can extend their services across the country, in an affordable and efficient manner. This is indeed a great leap forward.”

The CarePay platform which was founded in 2015 in Kenya and incorporated in Nigeria in 2018, offers efficiency and transparency of health benefits utilisation and payments, enabling health insurers to grow into new market segments, and for healthcare providers to receive their payments promptly.