Villgro Africa Podcast on Global Health Financing, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Africa

On the sidelines of the IDIA Summit in Nairobi, I had the opportunity to discuss several ideas on the Villgro Africa Podcast. Alongside David Saunders and Moses Waweru, we talked about what it will take to create prosperity for more people across Africa. Naturally, the conversation centered on market-creating innovations which make complicated and expensive products simple and affordable enough for many more people to access. I highlighted how organizations like Zuri Health, Mydawa, and Sproxil are working to expand access to medicines and medical information outside the traditional aid-dependent model. 

I also posed a question I think about often: is the purpose of development to create dependence, or to create development? Life is a series of struggles marked by consumption or nonconsumption events. Across Africa, per capita consumption of many goods and services is abysmally low, implying that most Africans live in compounded struggle. 

On financing, I discussed the importance of capital in an economy. Capital to an economy is like oxygen to a person in the sense that an economy cannot survive without it. But it behaves like water as it flows where there’s infrastructure and trust. I also discussed how financial vehicles must be fit for purpose. A sedan, for instance, no matter how well designed, cannot do the job of an 18-wheeler. 

Finally, I called on African governments to make attracting capital their primary job, not an afterthought, and challenged global investors to look beyond familiar markets given that the returns are there for those willing to do the work. The opportunity for market creation is vast. But the market must be created. That’s the catch.

Podcast Recording: https://villgroafrica.org/podcasts/global-health-financing-filli-the-gap/