Introduction

WiiQare is a digital health and fintech platform that empowers Africans to finance their healthcare and helps hospitals in Africa get paid. Our platform utilizes blockchain technology and connects providers, patients, and payers, simplifying healthcare payments through a paperless and transparent system.

The lack of health financing mechanisms in Africa significantly impacts access to care.  800 million people on the continent are unable to save for healthcare and lack insurance. As a result, 38% of this population will delay or forgo treatment during a health crisis, according to WHO. In addition, each year, over 110 million African citizens who do end up in the hospital experience catastrophic health spending, driving them into poverty.

Because individuals lack the means to cover their health expenses, extended family and friends become the key payers. This includes many family and friends overseas who send more than $9 billion annually to Africa for healthcare. However, the process of sending this money is not well adapted for healthcare. Fees for remittances are high and funds are typically received in cash, lacking means to track the funds and ensure they are expended for their intended purpose. Furthermore, members of the diaspora have limited visibility on the quality of care.

Members of the WiiQare team have direct experience with the challenges of accessing healthcare in Africa. WiiQare’s founder, Brice, had a family member who delayed care of a serious illness because they couldn’t afford treatment, and the seriousness of the health situation escalated. When the family became aware of the situation, they sent funds. It quickly became apparent just how exasperating and inefficient the process can be to relay funds and connect the person who is sick with proper care. Brice determined then to build a solution to simplify cross-border healthcare payments and improve access to quality care.

Going Open Source for scalability

Health finance is the backbone of access to healthcare. Without a proper health financing system, it is difficult to scale other health innovations to respond to the needs of the over a billion people on the African continent. Because health finance is a large and complex problem, we are framing our solution as an Open Source project. We expect this to facilitate collaboration with a broader community of developers, health and fintech experts, and other partnering organizations. We are confident that building as Open Source will ultimately allow us to engineer a better product–both in terms of quality and security.

WiiQare has an adept team with experience spanning business and health economics to technology development and blockchain. The company’s ethnically and culturally diverse team includes representation from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, India, and the USA.

The way ahead

The UNICEF Venture Fund investment will provide critical resources to accelerate the build and integration of a cross-border health payment system that connects healthcare providers, payers, and patients to simplify the healthcare payment experience. Funds will also be used to build our user base of migrants and beneficiaries and expand partnerships with healthcare providers.

We are honored and thrilled to be a part of UNICEF’s cohort of startups and look forward to working with and learning from the UNICEF team and other cohort companies developing blockchain-based solutions to benefit humanity.