Nigeria’s health sector faces acute challenges even as innovators redefine its future.
Public financing remains well below global benchmarks: the 2024 federal budget allocated about N1.34 trillion to health just around 4.6% of the total budget far short of the 15% Abuja Declaration target.
Many states also under‑spend on health relative to their budgets, with actual execution rates lagging allocations. Out‑of‑pocket payments, though improving, still account for a majority of health spending, reaching about 58.3% in 2024, exposing households to financial hardship.
Health outcomes remain uneven: Nigeria’s under‑five mortality rate is among the world’s highest at over 100 deaths per 1,000 live births, while infant and neonatal deaths also persist at worrying levels. Maternal mortality continues to drive concern, with the country contributing a substantial share of global maternal deaths due to limited access to quality obstetric care.
Despite these systemic gaps in funding, infrastructure, and outcomes, visionary women founders are leading solutions from supply chain innovations and primary care platforms to diagnostics, health education, and community‑driven services—transforming Nigeria’s health landscape and expanding access to quality care across communities.
Dr. Ola Brown is positioning capital as a tool to fix Africa’s healthcare gaps. As founder and general partner of HealthCap Africa, the Lagos-based firm she launched in 2020, she invests in early-stage healthtech and fintech startups across key markets including Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa.
The firm, which evolved from Flying Doctors Nigeria, reflects Brown’s transition from frontline medicine to systems-level investing. Alongside venture bets, HealthCap is building a pipeline of infrastructure projects spanning healthcare, clean energy and water, often through public-private partnerships.
Trained as a medical doctor with a PhD in finance, Brown blends clinical insight with capital allocation. She has also pushed for greater reliance on local investors to fund Africa’s startup ecosystem.
Beyond HealthCap, she serves as a non-executive director at Kuda, reinforcing her role at the intersection of finance and innovation. HealthCap says its portfolio has grown steadily, with total value running into over $100 million, while its infrastructure pipeline approaches $750 million. The firm positions itself as a female-led platform targeting high-impact opportunities across a continent of more than 1.4 billion people across over 10 African countries.
These healthcare juggernauts don’t get enough of their flowers. They’re doing amazing! Especially those on the services side