African governments collaborating with tech innovators to strengthen regional health supply chains
According to new research, African governments are working with tech entrepreneurs to strengthen regional health supply chains. Nearly 50 partnerships between health startups and African governments were found to be aimed at streamlining supply chains and enhancing health outcomes throughout the continent.
The latest annual market intelligence report from healthcare consulting firm Salient Advisory highlights the robust pan-African ecosystem of innovators enhancing the security and effectiveness of health supply chains across the continent.
The first pan-African landscape of health supply chain innovators on the continent, the report is titled “Innovations in Digitising Health Supply Chains in Africa” and was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It monitors more than 350 tech-enabled innovators who are digitizing supply chain operations in 27 African nations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a wave of supply chain innovations emerged, but it was unclear how their business models would fare in the long run. Even though the rate of new entries has significantly slowed, research indicates that African governments have formed nearly 50 partnerships with health supply chain innovators, using their tech-enabled solutions to address long-term issues with the accessibility, availability, and quality of health products in public health supply chains.
Governments have a strong interest in adopting digital order and inventory management solutions, as evidenced by the fact that nearly half of the partnerships identified focus on helping governments digitise ordering and inventory management to increase efficiency and reduce waste.
Although the majority of innovators collaborating with governments are more experienced, like Zipline and mPharma, some younger businesses, like Nigeria’s Figorr and Zimbabwe’s Vaxiglobal, have also established public sector partnerships early on.
Government support for innovations that have a social impact and generate jobs seems to be growing as Africa’s tech scene expands. The expansion of these alliances is also encouraging the creation of innovation-friendly regulations by governments all over the continent.
The health supply chain innovation ecosystem continues to show disparities in funding trends. Medical drone delivery services and US and European e-commerce companies account for 77% of the US$2.6 billion in funding that innovators have raised since their founding; the remaining innovators have raised US $584 million.
However, only 9% of all funding has been raised by startups in this category since their founding, despite the government’s apparent interest in ordering and inventory management innovations being strong and offering a potential path to scale.
“The report offers the first comprehensive overview of tech-enabled health supply chain innovators emerging across Africa. We are surprised – and thrilled – to see so many government partnerships with innovators underway at both national and sub-national levels. We urge global health donors, agencies, and industry partners to join with governments and investors in supporting high-potential innovators, helping foster more efficient and resilient healthcare supply chains while creating jobs,” said Remi Adeseun, director at Salient Advisory.
