Private investments boosting Africa's healthcare: official

Private investments are boosting Africa's healthcare sector by complementing government efforts to increase access to health services, an official of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has said.

The head of health and education in sub-Saharan Africa at the IFC, Biju Mohandas, said Monday in a signed article published in the local daily, the Standard, that over the past seven years, private equity funds alone had invested more than 300 million U.S. dollars in sub-Saharan Africa's healthcare sector.

"Over the past year, private equity fund managers are estimated to have raised approximately 600-700 million dollars for investing in health care," Mohandas said.

"Signs are emerging that Africa's healthcare sector is awakening and modernizing with the help of private investment," Mohandas said.

In early 2016, the IFC led a consortium of investors that injected 70 million dollars in Hygiea, Nigeria's largest healthcare group.

"Private investment enables consolidation which lowers consumer prices and improves quality of health services," the IFC official said.

Mohandas however said that the continent's health sector was mostly fragmented among small informal operations.

Mohandas urged the continent to seek capital from both private sector and public sources to invest in medical education infrastructure so as to increase the number of healthcare professionals. Endit