A market intelligence report from Salient Advisory, the Healthtech consultancy firm funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation indicates that 69% of Ghanaian innovators operate in both urban and rural areas of the country, ensuring health products availability nationwide. Inspired by the sector’s progress, a $7 million Investment in an innovation program has been launched to provide 60 promising early and growth-stage companies with access to markets and commercialization support to power their scale.
According to the report, which was launched recently, 69% of innovators operate in both urban and rural areas. mPharma was identified as the main health tech innovator, having raised 99.8% of the total $87.6m funding. Early this year, they announced a $35M making them the fastest-growing innovator with consumer and provider-facing product distribution offerings in Ghana.
Telemedicine an Online pharmacy have also seen some positivity with local regulation coming to play strongly as 60% of health innovators have adopted this approach.
The good thing in this report is that, 23% of innovators were founded in the last two years and 15% of them (innovators) operate in more than one country
However, the lack of an all-female(s) led health tech innovator sparked a conversation around gender-based funding. Ghana recorded a 0% share of female led innovators as opposed to males. Speaking to Remi Adeseun, a Director at Salient, she was optimistic about the future of the sector and hopes to encourage more women to take up the challenge in the healthtech innovation sector of the Ghanaian economy.
“There has been considerable progress over the past year as supply chain innovations work to enhance access to quality medicines. Our report provides investors, donors, and governments with actionable recommendations on engagement strategies to advance companies’ growth and impact. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and along with our esteemed partners, we are excited to be launching the Investing in Innovation program to connect promising companies to customers who can power their impact and scale.”
The report highlights more than 80 healthtech innovators in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria. Tech-enabled approaches to digitizing medicine distribution to underserved pharmacies covers drug shops, clinics, and hospitals, pioneered by companies operating in that sector.
