A healthy innovation

This month, the Shared Value in Action world tour shines the spotlight on Safaricom and the M-TIBA mobile “health wallet”, which has steadily been influencing the healthcare industry in Kenya and across the African continent.

In 2020, SVAI member Safaricom was recognised as one of the top 20 companies changing the world, thanks to M-TIBA digitising the management of healthcare schemes in Kenya.

M-TIBA is a mobile-based health wallet, which has steadily been influencing the healthcare industry across Africa. Developed by Safaricom, CarePay and PharmAccess Group, the app helps individuals with the management of their healthcare expenses. It does this by enabling users to send, receive and save funds so that they may access patient care at reduced cost, supporting individuals and families alike.

Launched in July 2016, M-TIBA is a three-way platform connecting patients, healthcare providers and healthcare payers (governments, insurers, donors and solidarity payers). The platform exchanges money and data between these three groups, allowing for the financing of both users and providers of healthcare.  

M-TIBA also provides a mobile “health wallet”, which is free for users and allows them to save, borrow and share money for non-catastrophic healthcare costs using a basic mobile phone, thereby improving their financial capability to access medical services from healthcare providers. Users can save in their own wallets, as well as receive money from relatives, employers, or individuals in other countries willing to donate directly for healthcare costs.

This digital solidarity mechanism allows those sending money to be sure that it will be used for health expenses. Money stored in M-TIBA can only be used to pay for treatment and medication at partner clinics and hospitals, or to pay for contributions to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), the national health scheme in Kenya.

HERE ARE SEVEN WAYS M-TIBA IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE COMMUNITY AND IMPACTING HEALTH CITIZENS ACROSS AFRICA.

1. A massive 4.7 million users have used the M-TIBA platform since its inception five years ago;
2. Close to 93% of Kenyans experienced improved healthcare services when using their mobile phones to access medical benefits
3. Some 3,216 healthcare providers across the country are making use of M-TIBA’s platform to process healthcare payments and benefits in real time;
4. Paid out medical payments totalled 2.6bn Kenyan Shillings per annum, easing the burden of healthcare providers and improving their profitability outcome.
5. In 2020, a total of 1.6 billion Kenyan Shillings in medical credit fund has been disbursed through M-TIBA’s platform, improving transparency and health outcomes.
6. A total of 721,000 digital treatment claims have been processed through M-TIBA, helping health insurers serve more Kenyans.
7. Some 1.16 billion micro transactions have been processed through M-TIBA, enabling cost effective mobile channels.