Dutch Minister hails success of digital healthcare innovations during Kenya visit

During a recent trip to Kenya, Reinette Klever, the Dutch Minister for Trade and Development, toured the Nairobi offices of CarePay, a health tech company born from a 2016 Dutch-Kenyan partnership involving PharmAccess, the Investment Fund for Health in Africa (IFHA), and Safaricom.

Her visit was part of a wider Dutch economic mission coinciding with the State Visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima.

CarePay developed the popular health insurance technology platform M-TIBA, which allows users to manage health insurance, facilitates real-time claim payments between patients, providers, and insurers, and grants patients control over their health data.

The M-TIBA platform has enrolled 4.7 million Kenyans and connects over 5,100 healthcare providers.

Klever witnessed a live demonstration of how M-TIBA works and was given a deep dive into how another tech platform, the Medical Credit Fund (MCF) digital lending program, works.

MCF, another initiative supported by Dutch funding, provides collateral-free mobile loans to healthcare SMEs, enabling them to expand services and purchase equipment.

The digital lending program, Klever learnt, has already disbursed about Ksh.25 billion ($195 million) to over 2,300 healthcare businesses across Africa, boasting a 96% repayment rate and empowering numerous entrepreneurs, particularly women.

The minister later visited an AAR Healthcare clinic at Sarit Center, Westlands, which utilizes M-TIBA.

They demonstrated how the platform has dramatically reduced insurance claim processing times from an average of 77 days down to just three days, significantly improving cash flow and the patient experience.

Officials noted that 17% of patients at the busy Sarit Center clinic access services via M-TIBA.

"The success of these Kenyan initiatives, particularly CarePay's technology, is gaining international attention, with the model being explored for application in the UAE and potentially even to address healthcare fragmentation in the Netherlands," read a statement.