Report: Nigeria Leads in Fostering Healthcare Innovation across Africa

Emma Okonji

Leading healthtech consulting firm, Salient Advisory, has released its latest market intelligence report, focusing on 24 leading Africa-focused supply chain innovators, which appear to be on the cusp of more substantive impact.

The report titled: ‘Leading Innovations Enabling Health Product Access in Africa’, ranked Nigeria as a leader in fostering healthtech innovation and integration in Africa.

Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the report addresses how healthtech supply chain innovators are emerging as leaders in the face of difficult macro-economic realities and a declining investment in African healthtech.

The report highlights that 29 per cent of the top healthtech innovators in Africa are based in Nigeria, with governments in the country paving the way for healthtech collaboration to optimise supply chains.

According to the report, 24 leading innovators are identified in advancing African healthcare despite facing significant economic challenges. The innovators have established extensive partnerships with over 100 manufacturers, 75 public health institutions, and nearly 50,000 providers across 33 countries. 

Kasha made news capturing Series B investment last year, and has since gone on to build its health technology access platform and report annual revenues of more than $50 million in 2023 – the highest ever recorded by Salient’s research to date.

Like Kasha, innovators that offer digitally-enabled Order and Inventory Management services to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drug shops appear dominant amongst the leading companies, making up 13 of the 24 featured innovations, with operations in 30 countries. Four leading online pharmacies are reaching nearly 10 million customers and generating median annual revenues of nearly $9 million. The other categories featured in the report are innovations in product protection and visibility, medical drone delivery and data analytics.

“While leading innovators now appear positioned to deliver more substantive impact, they require targeted engagement from governments, donors, industry and global health institutions to transform access for unserved populations and improve the cost-effectiveness of care. To leverage leading innovators’ models in driving increases in access, governments, industry, donors and global health agencies should simplify regulatory pathways; explore innovators’ ability to generate cost- savings for health systems, pursuing partnerships when the evidence is strong; and evolve contracting and payment systems to enable innovators to partner in healthcare delivery systems at larger scale,” the report said.

The 24 leading innovators featured, include: Chefaa, DrugStoc, Field Inc, Figorr, Grinta, HealthPlus, Kasha, LifeBank, Maisha Meds, Meditect, mPedigree, MYDAWA, Pendulum, PharmaSecure, Remedial Health, RxAll, Sobrus, Sproxil, Talamus Health, VIA Global Health, Viebeg, Wingcopter, Yodawy and Zipline.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Engagement Manager at Salient Advisory, Yomi Kazeem, said: “The findings underscore the remarkable resilience and growing impact of African supply chain innovators. Having tracked healthtech startups for many years, the emergence of a group of leading innovators is exciting to report. Local and global public health communities must increasingly recognise and leverage the innovators in developing reliable and resilient health supply chains.”

Senior Program Officer at Gates Foundation, Ann Allen, said:  “Technology-enabled innovations have the potential to help reverse long-running challenges in African health systems, while creating local jobs and strengthening local health markets. The report confirms innovators are increasingly positioned to deliver on this promise. However, there is more to be done as leveraging these innovations to truly transform cost-effective access for millions of unserved Africans will require concerted efforts from governments, industry and global health agencies alike.”