NAIROBI, Kenya, June 12 – M-TIBA has been awarded the 2017 Financial Times/IFC Transformational Business Award in Sustainable Development, with a focus on Health, Wellness, and Disease Prevention.
M-TIBA, developed by CarePay, PharmAccess Foundation and Safaricom, enables people to save, send, receive and pay money for medical treatment through a mobile health wallet on their phone.
Dr. Khama Rogo, Head of Health in Africa Initiative, IFC/World Bank Group, says, M-TIBA is proof of disruptive innovation happening on the African continent leading towards the attainment of universal health coverage.
“M-TIBA is truly leapfrogging healthcare in Kenya,” says Dr. Rogo.
The number of savers has been increasing 56 percent month on month since January 2017. In addition caregivers can send money to their dependents – certain that the money will be used for health only.
M-TIBA also provides a platform for healthcare benefits, such as vouchers and insurance.
“The support of all our partners has been invaluable in building M-TIBA and us being recognised as a transformational business. We’ve built a platform that allows for a more efficient and transparent way of connecting patients, doctors, payers and governments,” says Kees Van Lede, CEO, CarePay.
So far, more than ten donor and corporate schemes are running on M-TIBA.
In April 2017, PharmAccess strengthened the partnership with Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), applying M-TIBA within an NHIF health insurance scheme.
Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom says the award is a great recognition of how mobile – through innovative solutions like M-TIBA – is transforming access to essential services for millions of Kenyans.”
Since M-TIBA was launched in Kenya in the summer of 2016, more than 920,000 people have signed up for the service.
450 connected healthcare providers have treated more than 100,000 patients, generating more than Sh140 million in medical transactions through M-TIBA.
Medical Credit Fund, part of the PharmAccess Group, was also shortlisted for this year’s FT/IFC Transformational Business Award in the category Achievement in Transformational Finance.
Last year, the Kwara State Health Insurance Program won the award in the category Achievement in Sustainable Development: Maternal & Infant Health.