Over the weekend, Nigeria’s Health Tech space was awash with a piece of super news from far away Ghana – LifeBank has won the grand prize at the inaugural Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative.
When the news filtered in, I was not surprised. Here is why.
In a special analysis of the TechCabal’s Report on the State of Health Tech In Nigeria, I knew more of Nigeria’s Health Tech startups would keep recording major strides especially in the area of fundraising to finance critical operations in these startups.
LifeBank Nigeria has a mission and a goal that is both noble and relatable –
“We believe that no African should die from a shortage of essential medical products at the hospital level, and we are on a mission to solve it. Our goal is to deliver needed medical products such as blood, blood products, oxygen, as well as vaccines to hospitals across Africa. We are on a mission to save one million lives”.
So when the Founder and CEO of LifeBank , Temie Giwa-Tubosun, mounted the podium to claim the prize-award of $250,000, it is clear that the LifeBank was deserving of the win.
The panel of Judges at the event are all A-Class professionals and business owners and include Mr. Jack Ma of Alibaba Group and Nigeria’s own, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika.
First and second runner-up startups, Nawah Scientific — an Egyptian-based private research centre — and safe water micro-grid provider, Water Access Rwanda took home $150,000 and $100,000 respectively.
MEET THE OTHER TOP 7 NETPRENEURS;
The seven other finalist startups each got a share of the remaining $500,000 prize money. They are:
- Thrive Agric (Nigeria), an agricultural technology-enabled company that works with smallholder farmers to enable them with greater access to finance.
- DrugStoc (Nigeria), a cloud-based pharmaceutical IT and logistics platform focused on eliminating counterfeit drugs and expanding access to pharmaceutical products.
- Black Swan Tech Ltd (Nigeria), which built WeMUNIZE. This is automated scheduling, GPS-enabled SaaS to increase birth registration and early childhood immunizations
- UZURI K&Y (Rwanda), an African-inspired eco-friendly shoe brand established by two women entrepreneurs in Rwanda.
- J-Palm Liberia (Liberia), which is working to create income-earning and employment opportunities through sustainable palm oil production.
- Afrikrea.com (Ivory Coast), a ‘Made of Africa’ fashion, art, and handicraft online marketplace.
- Mumm (Egypt), a virtual cafeteria for businesses and online marketplace for home-based entrepreneurial cooks.
Out of the 7 other Top Netpreneurs, two are Nigeria Health Tech StartUp. This is not by chance.
Nigeria’s health tech startups would record more outstanding feats even in the new year.
