In order to increase commitments for health and achieve universal health coverage across Africa’s 55 countries,Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, co-founder of ABCHealth, and co-chair, GBCHealth has called on different stakeholders in the health sector to embrace partnership which is the only way in solving the numerous health challenges the continent currently faces.
In a friendly and educative discussion, leading stakeholders gathered at theinaugural Africa Business: Health Forum on the margins of the 32nd African Union Summit to discuss on the need for compliance and ethics which are critical in embedding goodwill and profitability in corporate business organizations.
“Only partnerships will help solve the health challenges the continent faces. Healthcare in Africa is constrained by scarce public funding and limited donor support; out-of-pocket expenditure accounts for 36percent of Africa’s total healthcare spend,” Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, co-founder of ABCHealth, and co-chair, GBCHealth said at the event.
Aig-Imoukhuede said given our income levels, it is no surprise that healthcare spend in Africa is grossly inadequate to meet Africa’s needs leading to a financing gap of N66bn per annum.
“Africans must play their role in this fight to ensure that health outcomes are as equitable in this part of the world as they are elsewhere. Africans have no choice, there is no alternative, and we must ensure that we fix health in Africa,” Aig-Imoukhuede Co-founder of ABCHealth said.
Aig-Imoukhuede asked public and private sector leaders to make their commitments known, and to join ABC Health in making history for the good of Africa.
The Forum saw the launch of the African Business Coalition for Health (ABCHealth), a private sector led coalition of companies and philanthropists who will come together to positively transform health care for Africans growing population. Business and public sector leaders at the forum lauded this initiative as a timely game-changer to improve the health sector in Africa.
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of Aliko Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who was represented by the Foundation’s Executive Director, Halima Aliko-Dangote, said Africa Business Health Forum would identify issues and solutions to Africa’s health challenges with a view to mobilizing the will to confront it headlong.
Dangote said it is a well-known fact that there is a vital relationship between health and economic growth and development in Africa as healthy populations live longer, are more productive and save more.
Access to essential health services is an important aspect of development, he added.
Dangote stated, “Governments from both developed and developing countries are increasingly looking at public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a way to expand access to higher-quality health services by leveraging capital, managerial capacity, and know-how from the private sector.
“Africa’s healthcare systems demand significant investments to meet the needs of their growing populations, changing patterns of diseases and the internationally-agreed development goals.”
He said as a businessman, and through Aliko Dangote foundation, he is committed to working with governments and key stakeholders for the development of impactful health initiatives in Africa in the belief that private sector leaders have a strong role to play.
Back in his home country, Dangote informed his audience that in keeping with his passion to see healthier African people and a better continent, he has proposed and charged business leaders to commit at least one per cent of their profit after tax to support the health sector.
On her part, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and co-convener of the forum, Vera Songwe said, “A healthy Africa is a productive Africa; a productive Africa is a prosperous Africa. Health spending remains largely inadequate to meet the growing healthcare needs and Africa has a financing gap in this regard of at least $66billion per annum”.
Citing findings from the ‘Economic Growth in Africa’ report launched during the Forum, Songwe added, “Only two countries (Algeria and Namibia) spend more than 5percent of GDP on health, and out-of-pocket payments are still extremely high. The report shows us just how much economic impact can be made from investing in health”.
Anthonia Obokoh
