Africa’s healthcare challenge is not simply about building more hospitals.
It is also about finding smarter ways to make care affordable, accessible and convenient for millions of people.
That is the opportunity being explored by companies such as CheckUps COVA, whose CEO, Dr. Moka Lantum, joined the Building for Africa Investment Show to discuss how technology can help rethink healthcare delivery on the continent.
The business is operating in Kenya, but the problem — and the opportunity — is much bigger than one country.
Across Africa, healthcare innovators are asking a critical question:
How can we use the technology people already have to reduce the cost of accessing care?
Building Healthcare Around Technology People Already Use
One of the most interesting parts of the CheckUps model is what it does not require:
Another mobile app.
Instead, the platform uses the web and WhatsApp.
Patients can use WhatsApp to communicate with healthcare providers, share prescriptions, send images, use voice messages and access services.
The thinking is simple.
If millions of Africans already use WhatsApp every day, why spend more money convincing people to download, learn and maintain another application?
For African businesses, there is a broader lesson here:
Innovation does not always mean creating more technology. Sometimes it means using existing technology better.
Making Health Benefits Easier to Buy and Share
CheckUps COVA is also using technology to rethink how health benefits are purchased and used.
The platform is designed to allow people to buy healthcare benefits and share them with others — including family members, employees and other people within their network.
That becomes particularly interesting when thinking about Africa’s diaspora.
Someone living outside the continent could potentially contribute directly towards healthcare benefits for relatives at home, rather than simply sending money without knowing exactly how it will be spent.
This creates opportunities at the intersection of:
- Healthcare
- Payments
- Fintech
- Diaspora services
- Insurance and benefits
- Digital identity
- Data and analytics
Healthcare innovation in Africa will increasingly involve more than doctors and hospitals.
Financial technology will also play an important role.
Lowering the Cost of Healthcare
Dr. Lantum repeatedly returned to three problems:
Cost. Time. Convenience.
These are some of the biggest barriers to healthcare access across many African markets.
Technology can help reduce some of those barriers.
Remote communication can reduce unnecessary hospital visits.
Centralised laboratories can lower testing costs.
Digital payments can simplify transactions.
Technology can also help standardise certain healthcare processes so that services can be delivered more efficiently.
For investors, this means the African healthcare opportunity is not limited to hospitals or pharmaceutical companies.
There is room for businesses building the infrastructure around healthcare delivery.
Bringing Advanced Medical Technology to Africa
The conversation also explored CheckUps’ investment in new treatment technology.
The company demonstrated a laser treatment system being used for certain forms of musculoskeletal pain, including back, shoulder and joint pain.
The bigger investment story is not simply the machine itself.
It is the idea that advanced medical technologies can be introduced into African markets and adapted to local economics.
Rather than assuming cutting-edge treatment must always require patients to travel abroad, African healthcare companies can invest in bringing more specialised treatment closer to patients.
That could create opportunities across:
- Medical equipment
- Diagnostics
- Telemedicine
- Digital health
- Medical financing
- Treatment centres
- Healthcare logistics
- Laboratory services
- Health benefits platforms
Africa Needs Healthcare Built for African Realities
Importing healthcare models without adapting them to local realities can make care unnecessarily expensive.
African healthcare innovation has to consider how people communicate, how they pay, where they live and what they can afford.
That means designing systems around:
Lower-cost technology.
Mobile-first communication.
Flexible payments.
Shared healthcare benefits.
Local infrastructure.
Simpler access to healthcare professionals.
The companies that solve these problems at scale could help transform healthcare across the continent.
And they could also create some of Africa’s most important new businesses.
Healthcare Innovation Is an Investment Opportunity
Africa’s growing population means demand for healthcare will continue to increase.
Meeting that demand cannot depend solely on building more traditional facilities.
The continent will also need technology that makes existing healthcare systems more efficient.
CheckUps COVA offers one example of what that innovation can look like.
But the larger opportunity belongs to Africa.
The next major African healthcare company could emerge from payments, logistics, AI, telemedicine, diagnostics or an idea that has not yet been built.
The opportunity is to solve real problems while making healthcare easier to reach and easier to afford.
That is innovation.
And that is what it means to Build for Africa.
Watch the Full Video
Want to see the technology in action and hear the full conversation with Dr. Moka Lantum?
Watch the full Building for Africa episode on YouTube