On March 24th, Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, CEO of the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) chaired a Steering Committee session of the Home-Grown Solutions (HGS) Accelerator which selected 14 African healthcare ventures to form the second cohort to receive support by the initiative.

The HGS Accelerator for Pandemic Resilience is an initiative that aims to accelerate the growth of African healthcare companies to strengthen the continent’s pandemic resilience, in line with the African Union's Agenda 2063 aspirations. This is achieved through offering hands-on and tailored support to growth and mature stage healthcare businesses. AUDA-NEPAD founded the accelerator initiative in 2020 in partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and with support from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Villgro Africa.

The Steering Committee, whose members can be found at the bottom of this page, provided the following in overall high level reflections and guidance for the initiative:

• Commendation for the highly succesfull call for applications conducted over December 2021 and January 2022, which attracted 160 applications from over 25 countries on the continent

• Selection of 14 promising African ventures from 13 countries and covering a topic of pressing issues in healthcare, with end beneficiaries in over 25 countries (see below)

• Satisfaction to see how the 5 ventures supported during the 2021 East Africa pilot continue to thrive as seen by international expansion of end beneficiaries, opening of new clinics, manufacturing of large quantities of diagnostic test kits, and other indicators

• Support and guidance on how to continue to build out the initiative, both on topics of growing future traction across the continent, further institutionalize and dissemminate learnings and successes, expanding the offering with support mechanisms such as grant provision and diversifying funder base with domestic and international funders

During the meeting, Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki said, “We went through a first pilot phase, which has allowed us to see clearly the impact that this idea of supporting Home Grown Solutions can have [...] I believe that in this second phase and as we expand the initiative, we will be able to show even more impact on health systems, this time across the continent”, expressing his satisfaction not just with the Accelerator, but even more so with the innovative and impactful work undertaken by the selected and other African ‘Home Grown Solutions’ healthcare ventures.

With around 30 Home Grown Solutions shortlisted for deliberation, the Steering Committee has chosen 14 companies to be supported as part of the 2022 cohort, all of which will receive the Accelerator’s support over a period of 6 months and are described below:

			Africa Health Holdings [website] is a Ghanaian-based venture that acquires and operates provider networks in multiple countries, with a focus on introducing harmonized technology,  optimized utilization and economies of scale & scope to build health system capacity and affordability.
			Appy Saúde [website] is an Angola-based e-commerce platform with a B2B2C model which enables consumers to assess pharmaceuticals' availability at nearby pharmacies as well as order or book, and for pharmacies to purchase supplies themselves.
			DataPathology [website] is a Morocco-based company whose main solution is to outsource pathology for a hospital by installing and running a local laboratory with a technical staff member, who sends sample scans for remote assessment to a network of anatomical pathologists.
			Dawa Life Sciences [website] is a Kenyan pharmaceuticals manufacturer aiming to steadily reduce Africa’s depedence on drugs imports, with a catalogue of more than 800 products and already supplying more than 20 countries across the continent.
			Doctoora [website] is a Nigerian company offering home visits through an online platform, and currently rolling out a novel pre-paid health scheme which allows uninsured individuals to access healthcare at affordable prices by utilizing underused capacity of existing healthcare facilities.
			Doctor on Call [website] is a Sudan-based platform linking patients with healthcare professionals for home visits and wellness services, through an Android app and call center in Khartoum.
			Mdaas Global [website] is a Nigeria-based network of modern and tech-enabled diagnostic referral centers for underserved communities, supported by a digital and physical health management platform for continues and preventive care.
			Online Clinic Yathu (Ocliya) [website] is a Malawi-based online platform which facilitates tele-consultations, home based primary healthcare delivery, wellness, and other specialists' services such as physiotherapy.
			Polyclinique Pasteur [website] is a Mali-based hospital which has grown to become a referral hospital of choice, providing primary to tertiary care in Mali itself as well as Guinea C.
			Rology [website] is an Egyptian-based company operating an AI-assisted teleradiology platform that matches a hospital’s radiology results with a network of radiologists who interpret and share reports.
			Simbona [website] is an Ethiopian manufacturer of ultraviolet light based (UV) sterilization machines to clean items and surfaces with which facilities can reduce prevalence of hospital-acquired infections.
			Sinapi [website] is a South African manufacturer of affordable, high quality and life-saving medical devices such as chest drains or uterine ballon tamponades exporting to 15 countries in Africa
			Streamline Health [website] is a Uganda-based company introducing Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in urban or rural facilities, and building on that to provide localized community insurance solutions.
			Wiiqare [website] is a Congo-based health finance solution, a loyalty-card like digital health wallet that helps uninsured communities save and transfer funds which can solely be accessed for healthcare.

For more information, please consult our microsite. For information on the composition of the Steering Committee, please see the below:

• Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki (Chair)  (AUDA-NEPAD, Chief Executive Officer)

• Mr. Ryuichi Kato (JICA, Vice President)

• Prof. Aggrey Ambali (AUDA-NEPAD, Head of AU Development Fund)

• Dr. Elizabeth Wala  (Independent, Global Advisor)

• Dr. Benjamin Djoudalbaye (Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Head of Policy, Health Diplomacy and Communication)

• Ms. Kanayo Awani (Afreximbank, Managing Director, Intra-African Trade Initiative)

• Mr. Mathieu Lamiaux (Boston Consulting Group, Managing Director and Senior Partner)

• Ms. Annick Gouba-Guibal (AGC, Founder and Chief Executive Officer)

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