Africa’s Health-Tech Innovators Pressed to Build First Billion-Dollar Company

Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, Chairman of the Africa HealthTech Summit, projects that Africa’s health-technology sector will produce its first billion-dollar company within the next five years.

Speaking at the opening of the fifth Africa HealthTech Summit in Kigali on September 30, Nsengimana challenged innovators to build ventures capable of reaching millions of people while creating jobs across the continent.

“Africa has the opportunity to make healthcare become the next fintech. There are 10 unicorns on the African continent, and nine of them are in fintech. I want the CEO of the health-tech unicorn to be standing here and talk real business. We want you on this stage to tell us how you have impacted a billion lives and, as a result, you will become a billion-dollar company,” he said. A unicorn is defined as a privately held company valued at more than $1 billion.

This push coincides with the summit’s effort to connect health-tech innovators with investors. Organizers have established a Deal Room featuring 22 scale-ups, 13 confirmed investors, and 31 pre-arranged meetings.

Participation has grown from approximately 600 delegates in 2022 to over 4,300 registered attendees as of September 30. However, Nsengimana noted that this growth has not yet yielded equal representation, with women accounting for 41 percent of participants compared with 59 percent men.

He traced the imbalance to a 2022 meeting in Dakar, where 22 member states were represented but only one woman attended. This prompted the creation of the African Health Women’s Network (AWHN), which now runs boot camps, mentorship and training programs, and promotes STEM education among young women.

The summit is also seeking greater participation from people living with disabilities and Francophone African countries.

World Health Organisation Regional Director for Africa, Prof Mohamed Yakub Janabi, said the continent must move from digital-health pilots to solutions that reach communities and deliver measurable impact. “Governments must create the right solutions. Innovators must solve real health problems, and investors must take proven solutions beyond the pilot stage,” he said.

Nsengimana said the next phase will focus on building digital systems at scale, including infrastructure that can connect information from community health workers to policymakers in real time.

He said discussions around a Presidential Health Innovation and Transformation Initiative (PHITI) are seeking to bring together ministries of health, technology and finance to make health technology bankable and attract private-sector investment.

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