A year in Nigerian Digital Health — 2017 review
This is a follow up post to the January 2017 post, ‘What to expect in 2017 for Nigerian Health Tech Startups’. Read it if you haven’t yet as it sets the tone for this.
The macro-economy
The macroeconomic headwinds for Nigeria was a central feature in my prediction for the year. This turned out to be correct as the Nigerian economy continued to struggle. The economy did however exit recession in Q2, growing 0.55% year on year. A recovery now seems to be ongoing albeit slowly. Forecast from Fitch indicate that the economy will only grow by 1% and recommend an overall negative outlook.
The bright light for the economy broadly speaking has been the recovery in oil prices. This has provided much needed revenues to a cash-strapped government and helped stabilize our foreign exchange troubles. It’s however a worrying trend for the longer term stability of the economy as it remains exposed to any shock in oil prices. While a shift to non-oil revenue continues to be mooted by the government, the contraction of non-oil revenue provides a worrying sign for the future.
Health expenditure at around 4% of the budget continues to represent far less than the 15% recommended in the Abuja declaration. This backdrop sets the context for what has been undoubtedly a difficult year for health and business in Nigeria. While the government touts its success in the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking ( it moved up 20 places to 145 and was listed as a top 10 reforming country worldwide), doing business in health tech is still quite hard.
State Health Insurance schemes
State health insurance schemes seemed to take off this year with many states launching, re-launching or posturing to better implement schemes. 14 states have passed their state health insurance laws. The 14 states are Lagos, Oyo, Ekiti, Delta, Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Abia, Adamawa, Kano, Anambra, Sokoto and Bauchi. This a positive development that should reduce our dependence on out-of-pocket health expenditure that’s estimated at 73.8%.
Infectious disease still central
On the disease front, outbreaks of monkey pox, Lassa fever and meningitis dominated headlines and indicate the continued struggle we have with infectious disease and deficiencies in our public health systems. This is corroborated by the WHO’s 2017 world malaria report that indicates an increase in malaria cases across Nigeria.
#DrExit
The trend for doctors exiting the country didn’t abate. By many accounts hundreds more left the shores of Nigeria. In one survey, 88% of doctors surveyed indicated that they were personally considering work opportunities abroad. This is a grim situation but can also be an opportunity for startups to innovate around the lack of doctors. Ultimately we will however have to find a way to attract our doctors back as a health system cannot function properly in the context of constant doctor emigration.
Health tech Investments and wins
2017 provided some positive news of investments and competitive wins for Nigerian digital health companies. Kangpe a telemedicine and health insurance startup and Helium health an EHR company made it into Y combinator (YC). YC is a silicon valley based tech business accelerator that invests $120,000 in its portfolio companies and helps them grow.
A landmark $6 million series A investment round announced by mPharma, a tech enabled pharmacy benefits manager with operations in Nigeria, was the biggest news for our industry this year. I analysed it in the November edition of our monthly newsletter that you should already be subscribed to.
Lifebank, a blood delivery service got a lot of PR and participated in cchub’s pitchdrive, a tour around European tech hubs to raise investment.
Gerocare a subscription service for doctor visits for the elderly got into Ventures Platform acceleration program in Abuja.
Greymate care a provider of home-care for the elderly and disabled came third in the She Leads Africa accelerator program.
Medsaf a startup making buying and selling medications easy for health providers won seedstars Nigeria and also launched at Demo Africa.
Mpedigree a company that uses technology to check drug counterfeiting was listed in the 2017 edition of the ‘Disrupt 100 annual index’.
Omomi the child health monitoring app won multiple awards and got into a number of accelerators: startup bootcamp in Capetown and world Expo grant.
Curacel health an EHR company got into and graduated from a Dubai based accelerator
New kids on the block
As I predicted at the start of the year, there were more additions to the digital health startup fold. There are too many to mention, this link from techpoint provides a small selection they featured through the year. Suffice it to say that telemedicine is all the rave.
Events
An ehealth symposium held in January in idea hub.
Facebook sponsored a hackathon delivered by Epiafric, ccHub and Digital Health Nigeria.
Epiafric held another edition of their future of health conference. The business of health was the focus of this edition.
Thiqa labs held the first session of their digital health office hours with the country lead of PharmAccess. They’re planning to host similar events through out 2018.
Assessment
This year saw more activity and progress in the Nigerian health tech and innovation space. I’m sure I didn’t capture it all. Please add more in the comments section. Here’s to a great 2018. Have a great festive season in the mean time and keep an eye out for more exciting stuff in digital health in the new year.
I’ll be publishing my 2018 outlook early in the year so remember to join our mailing list/ community via our website.
PS. The post has been edited to include the section on doctor migration
