(Ecofin agency) – The health problems of its populations make Africa lose $ 2400 billion each year according to the African Development Bank (BAD). However, the healthtech sector, which aims to improve access to care via digital solutions, has a slowdown in financing. In 2024, African start-ups operating in health technologies raised $ 65 million, a fall of 69% compared to 2023. Does this decline call into question the strategic role that healthtech could play on the continent?
The drop in funding is linked to the general slowdown in venture capital and the prudence of investors in the face of economic uncertainties. After the boom of investments in 2021, the worldwide venture capital market underwent a correction in 2022-2023, including in Africa.
“Two years after the start of the global crisis, it is clear that the African technological ecosystem underwent the consequences head on, even if it comes out much better than the regions of Latin America and Southeast Asia” said Cyril Collon, general partner of the Partéch Transatlantic Fund in 2024.
He added that “Despite this correction, over the past 10 years, the African technological ecosystem has multiplied by 10 in terms of transactions and financing, with around $ 20 billion invested in nearly 3,000 transactions, including 68% in the past three years”.
According to Parth Africa, African start-ups raised a total of 5.2 billion USD in equity in 2021 against USD 2.2 billion in 2024. The fintech, segment attracting the most investment on the continent, was also negatively impacted by this capital drought. In 2021, African fintechs raised 3.2 billion USD, or 63% of the funds captured, against USD 1.35 billion in 2024.
An ecosystem still dynamic
Healthtech has attracted more than billion dollars to Africa over the past five years. From 18 million USD in 2018, the figures have increased tenfold the following year to reach 189 million USD, and a peak of 230 million USD in 2021. These flows allowed innovators to multiply e-health solutions on the continent, ranging from telemedicine platforms to the delivery of drugs or blood by drones in roads inaccessible by road.
In Kenya, Ilara Health provides affordable diagnostic tools to health care providers in rural areas. It is associated with artificial intelligence services which it incorporates into technological platforms distributed to doctors, thus improving the organization of care in rural areas. To set up its activities, it has turned to investors who have already injected around 10.8 million USD since its launch in 2019.
The Cameroonian Healthtech Waspito connects patients and doctors for instant video consultations via its mobile application accessible on iOS and on Android. Since its launch in 2020, it has captured about 8.7 million USD according to Crunchbasein order to develop its technology and extend to other African countries such as Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal.
-These young shoots try to fill the deficit into health and health infrastructure on the continent. In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa had an average of 2.3 doctors and 12.6 nurses/midwives per 10,000 inhabitants, against 39.4 and 89.5 in Europe for example. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there will be 6.1 million health professionals in Africa by 2030, an increase of 45% compared to 2013, the year when the latest estimates were carried out.
“The important shortage of health professionals in Africa has disastrous implications. Without adequate and well -trained staff, responding to challenges such as maternal and child mortality, infectious diseases and non -transmitted diseases, but also the provision of essential health services as vaccination remains a difficult battle “ said in 2022 Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
The large -scale deployment of healthtech: an equation to be resolved
Access to the alternatives offered by healthtechs comes up against the weakness of internet access on the continent. According to data from the World Association of Telephone Operators (GSMA), sub -Saharan Africa counted in 2023 320 million mobile Internet users for a penetration rate of 27%. This figure is expected to grow 6.2% each year to 520 million in 2030, a penetration rate of 37%.
This can be explained by the cost of access to smartphones, the cost of the Internet and the infrastructural challenges. For the GSMA, “It is urgent to reform taxation to improve the financial accessibility of smartphones and mobile services, the cost of which is a major obstacle to the adoption of mobile broadband”.
Africa also displayed a score of 0.4534 out of 1 in the telecommunications infrastructure index (TII) in 2024, according to the United Nations. It increased by 27.8% compared to 2022 where it was 0.3548 out of 1. The world average was established at 0.6896 out of 1.
If the various obstacles are overcome, healthtech could well become a strategic pillar for the sustainable improvement in the health sector in Africa. By mobilizing digital technology to bring the care of populations closer, start-ups operating in this segment reinvent the processes. It remains to be seen whether the ecosystem will once again attract the funding necessary to cross the course of experimentation and succeed in systemic integration.
ADONI CONRAD WHEN
Edited by: Feriol Bewa
