Kigali, Rwanda – The much anticipated Africa HealthTech Marketplace, co-created by the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), officially launched today at the Africa HealthTech Summit. The event was a key highlight of the Summit, showcasing a pivotal new digital platform designed to scale access to trusted health innovations across the continent.
Today, 600 million people across Africa lack access to basic healthcare services – a crisis that has far-reaching implications for public health, economic development, and social equity. This shortfall is driven by a combination of factors, including severe shortages in healthcare infrastructure, a lack of trained medical professionals, and vast rural populations that remain disconnected from essential health services.
In many African countries, there are fewer than two healthcare workers per 1,000 people, far below global recommendations – leaving millions without easy access to a doctor, nurse, or clinic. This gap is not just a healthcare issue; it affects every aspect of life, contributing to higher mortality rates, poor disease management, and a lack of preventive care for conditions like malaria, tuberculosis, and maternal health. These challenges are further exacerbated by underfunded public health systems and fragmented solutions that often fail to address the core needs of the population.
The new Africa HealthTech Marketplace is an essential digital platform, designed to address a critical gap in Africa’s healthcare ecosystem. The platform curates’ digital health solutions developed by African innovators to simplify the process for healthcare providers, governments, and development organizations to discover, evaluate, and procure the digital tools they need.
In recent years, the digitalization of health delivery has begun to reshape how healthcare is accessed and managed across Africa. Digital health innovations, such as telemedicine, mobile health applications, and electronic health records, offer the potential to streamline services and extend care to remote areas.
However, despite these advancements, over 40% of Africa’s population remains without access to basic healthcare, with rural areas being hit the hardest. Health providers face significant challenges, including poor internet connectivity and insufficient training in digital health tools. While digital health innovations are emerging as powerful solutions to these challenges, many health providers struggle to identify, evaluate, and implement the right tools due to a fragmented marketplace. The lack of coordination across health systems further promotes the problem, as disparate tools are often incompatible, limiting their effectiveness and impact.
The Africa HealthTech Marketplace responds to this need by:
- Curating digital health solutions that are specifically designed for African contexts, ensuring quality, relevance, and scalability.
- Facilitating informed procurement decisions, connecting governments, ministries of health, non-government organisations, and healthcare providers to a trusted platform for sourcing digital health innovations.
- Connecting innovators to a larger ecosystem, giving African startups the visibility they need to scale their solutions and create meaningful partnerships with health institutions across the continent.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)
“The Africa HealthTech Marketplace is a game-changer for healthcare in Africa. By offering a platform that showcases targeted, scalable solutions, we are empowering health providers across the continent to access the tools they need to improve health outcomes.”
-Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General, Africa CDC
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is a continental autonomous health agency of the African Union established to support public health initiatives of Member States and strengthen the capacity of their public health institutions to detect, prevent, control and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats. Africa CDC supports African Union Member States in providing coordinated and integrated solutions to the inadequacies in their public health infrastructure, human resource capacity, disease surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, and preparedness and response to health emergencies and disasters.
Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)
“Our vision is to bridge the gap between innovation and implementation. The Africa HealthTech Marketplace will not only enhance visibility for African innovators but also ensure that healthcare providers can easily find and integrate trusted digital health solutions.”
-Diana Sang, Africa Director, Digital Impact Alliance
As a trusted thought leader and ecosystem builder, the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) connects governments, decision-makers, and development actors with the essential tools, knowledge, and insights needed for effective digital transformation. Their work emphasizes the importance of design, implementation, and governance to help funders and policy makers to prioritize good digital public infrastructure (DPI), as well as essential safeguards. These efforts are crucial in advancing a future where all people can benefit from the power of data and digital technology.
