Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Africa Investment Forum, a marketplace for transactions that close Africa's investment gaps, has channeled investments to projects that address the continent's biggest healthcare challenges - building quality healthcare infrastructure; developing the continent's pharmaceutical industry; and increasing the capacity of vaccine manufacturing.
These priorities were outlined by African Development Bank president Dr Akinwumi Adesina earlier this year, when he warned at an African Union summit that "Africa cannot afford to outsource the healthcare security of its 1.4 billion citizens to the benevolence of others."
In March 2022, the Africa Investment Forum brought together investors, deal sponsors and government ministers for virtual Boardroom meetings to advance transactions that had been prepared for closure.
Five of those boardroom transactions, with a value of $484 million, were healthcare projects spanning virtually all regions of the continent. They included two specialist hospitals, a multinational health fund, a pharmaceutical and biomed industrial hub, and a mobile telemedicine project.
These projects demonstrate the breadth of opportunity available in what is expected to be a fast-growing sector over the next decades. They also showcase the Africa Investment Forum's power as a connector of Africa to investors from around the world.
Mobihealth, the telehealth provider mentioned earlier sets up kiosks on the premises of corporations, schools and churches that provide 24/7 access to local and international medical experts and remote diagnostic tools. It plans to integrate virtual reality in the service of medical diagnostics. The company is seeking $67 million to drive its target of reaching and treating at least one million patients within ten years. It will achieve this by rolling out services in several new countries in East and North Africa.
Given that there are around 0.4 trained doctors for every 1000 people sub-Saharan Africans, and even fewer in rural parts of the continent, telemedicine offers a promising solution that can cut the likelihood that serious illnesses will progress unchecked and also create skilled jobs. Rising rates of smartphone adoption are expected to expand the customer base for these services.
The onset of Covid-19--and the vaccine inequality that followed - also underscored the importance of improving preventive care in Africa, the continent with the highest disease burden.
In February 2022 The World Health Organization announced that Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria would be the pioneering participants in its mRNA technology transfer hub initiative. An mRNA vaccine is a type of vaccine that uses a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce an immune response.
The WHO's initiative paved the way for the manufacture and licensing of a range of pharmaceuticals in these six countries.
Among the transformational Boardroom transactions that exemplifies the opportunities, is the construction of an $80 million industrial pharmaceutical and biomedical hub to meet the vaccine needs of the West Africa region, and perhaps beyond. The plan includes the integration of several components: industrial production of drugs and related activities; a logistics platform; a pharmaceutical research & development zone; and a university centre focused on pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences.
Another project points to a growing health threat. Cancer rates are expected to double in Africa during the next two decades, according to study by an American university. The project is for the development of a $140 million specialist oncology hospital serving the southern Africa region. It will provide 30-day beds, 30 adult medical oncology beds, 30 adult and 10 paediatric and medical oncology beds and another 50 beds for those in physical rehabilitation.
The Africa Investment Forum's 2022 Market Days will present these and many other transactions to investors from around the world. Market Days is taking place from 2nd to 4th November in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
In addition to health care transactions, the event will feature deals in the energy, transport, infrastructure and agribusiness sectors. Market Days will also promote opportunities in industries where Africa has a comparative advantage such as music, film and textiles, as well as transactions that offer considerable benefit to women.
The deals will be sourced from the investment pipelines of the eight founding partners of the platform. They are: the African Development Bank, Africa50; the Africa Finance Corporation; the African Export-Import Bank; the Development Bank of Southern Africa; the Trade and Development Bank; the European Investment Bank; and the Islamic Development Bank.
Since its inception in 2018, the Africa Investment Forum platform has mobilised investment interests in excess of $100 billion.
