A Nigerian health tech company called WellaHealth has started Healthsend Africa in Kenya. The subsidiary opened in Nigeria in June 2023, so this news comes after that.
Healthsend says it expanded to Kenya because it has a significant and vital diaspora community with health problems similar to Nigeria’s. It is also very connected to Kenya’s health and technology scenes.
“We have willing partners who help us make it easier to help the families of Kenyans who live outside of Kenya.” Some Kenyans who lived outside of Kenya kept asking when we would start in their country after we did so in Nigeria. We’re excited to move to Kenya and serve them there.
They can use the service to add money to a computer wallet and pay for many of the company’s medical services in Nigeria and Kenya for their family members. People new to the United States, Ireland, the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia can use the service.
It is common for immigrants to send money back to their families, which is called transfers. This helps reduce poverty and improve health. In the past ten years, money sent back to Africa more than doubled, beating out foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development aid (ODA). In 2022, they reached $100 billion.
According to a study from the World Bank in 2022, remittances brought $49 billion back to sub-Saharan Africa in 2021. Nigeria’s large migrant population sends a lot of money back to Nigeria. Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal are next in line.
Read also: How health tech is changing the game in Africa
Why It Matters
Neto Ikpeme, CEO of WellaHealth, started Healthsend Africa to help his family get better access to high-quality medicine and care. However, the company also did this to exploit the diaspora’s ability to improve healthcare access in their home country.
So, refugees can go to Nigeria and buy medicine or health plans for their family members, such as health insurance. For now, though, they can only get help by buying natural prescription drugs for their loved ones in Kenya with long-term illnesses like diabetes.
The company also wants to give immigrants’ family members in Kenya access to a range of healthcare services, such as making doctor visits, buying health insurance, and keeping an eye on medical conditions from afar.
But this isn’t a new service in Nigeria or Kenya. For example, Fleri is a migrant family care platform that helps people who have moved abroad find and handle healthcare for their family members back home.
The US, Canada, and the UK allow immigrants to purchase family members’ health insurance policies. You can add as many loved ones as you are responsible for as recipients in your home country, which is Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mali, Senegal, Algeria, Nigeria, or Ghana.
African health tech company offering seamless care
Another health tech business, DiaspoCare, helps Africans abroad connect with their family and caretakers. Immigrants buy vouchers for Kenyan, Nigerian, and Ghanaian relatives like Healthsend
Healthysend argues its competitive edge comes from a profound understanding of the issue. Therefore, it has partnered with other companies and aims to continue doing so to develop the sector and help expats take better care of their families.
In addition, we employ a health wallet to sell services. When you fund the wallet, you can tell us how to use this service and who benefits.
Healthsend’s staff are “close friends and confidants to our customers and their families.” The subsidiary says it has received much attention and adoption despite its early beginnings.
Furthermore, the company plans to go pan-African. While expanding in Kenya and Nigeria, it hopes to reach other African markets.
