NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, December 1, 2014

Nigeria’s health care sector is to get a major push courtesy of a $1million public-private coalition investment to save one million lives of women and children from preventable diseases such as malaria, malnutrition, lack of access to life-saving commodities and suboptimal supply chain systems, among others.

The investment, which is driven by the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN), aimed at mobilising Nigeria ‘s private sector to improve health outcomes, is via a Health Innovation Challenge (HIC).

The initiative, which is the first of its kind in Africa, will enable Nigeria accelerate progress in achieving health-related MDGs as the 2015 target approaches.

The HIC, which will be launched on December 5, 2014 by leading private sector business leaders in Nigeria, including Herbert Wigwe (CEO, Access Bank and chair of the innovation challenge), Aliko Dangote as well as Jim Ovia, will identify and support promising innovative models to improve healthcare service delivery in Nigeria’s healthcare system.