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

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Cash-rich Indian hospital groups such as recently listed Narayana Hrudayalaya Ltd. are setting up operations in Africa to tap a growing stream of middle-class patients from the continent seeking quality health care.

With financing from Abraaj Group’s Africa Health Fund and the International Finance Corp., the Mumbai-listed group is partnering with Kenyan investors and will break ground on a 130-bed specialist cardiac hospital in the capital, Nairobi, in January. Another group of investors is joining forces with Gurgaon, India-based Medanta Hospital to set up a 200-bed facility in the East African nation.

“A lot of these companies have figured out that they are getting a significant number of patients from Africa,” said Biju Mohandas, who heads the IFC’s health-investment team in Nairobi. “They want to be among the first to get a toehold in Africa and ride the growth wave even as they continue to expand back in India.”

sub-Saharan Africa’s private health care industry is estimated to be worth about $21 billion (Dh77 billion), according to the IFC, and may double in value over the next decade. Last year, East Africans spent about $1 billion seeking medical attention in India, according to Khama Rogo, head of the World Bank’s Health in Africa Initiative.