A Nigerian Health Tech Startup is Making Medical Care Affordable

By Owosho Ololade

Over the years, the Nigerian health system has been faced with several challenges and has over time been ranked low in the global sphere. Several factors have been said to have contributed to this but all point to underfunding as the major reason. 

In the 2023 budgetary allocation, only 5.7 percent was allocated to the Nigerian health sector as against the 15 percent recommended by the African Union (AU). This has, in turn, made the sector lack necessary infrastructural facilities. 

The failure of the government to employ more health workers is another challenge. Currently, Nigeria has one doctor attending to 4000-5000 patients as against the one doctor to 600 patients ratio recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Even though these doctors are working beyond the recommendation, they are still not given the proper remuneration. This has also contributed to some of them having a negative attitude toward work while some others prefer to leave the country in pursuits of greener pastures under the guise of 'Japa'.

The effect of the above-mentioned factor which has been present in medical centres has extended to health centres in the country's higher institutions.  Students have complained about having to stay in a long queue no matter their pain before they are attended to. School clinics cannot be said to have the required facilities while some have little or no drugs to give to students.  Students have to pay for school ambulances before they can be taken to the school clinic while some talked about how judgemental their school health worker is. 

Amidst this, Jesutoni Omiye a medical student of Ekiti State University who is a sickle cell patient explained the difficulties he has faced in accessing his school health care centre,  "When I was in part one, I was having a crisis which I normally have as a sickle cell patient, but it was unfortunate that our school health centre was locked because Non-Academic Staff Union(NASU) was on strike". 

In his attempt to prevent self-medication and to provide quick and accessible healthcare, he came up with JEAY Healthcare, an application that provides healthcare services that are convenient, affordable, and accessible. 

How it works:

JEAY Healthcare is an application that can be downloaded on the google play store but for the user to enjoy all the services rendered, the user must sign up with his or her name, address, gender, and phone number. After signing up, to consult a physician, you are required to pay #1,000. Then you have access to the physician for 24 hours through video call, audio call, or messaging options and you can choose any doctor you would like to attend to you on their application interface. 

There is also an online pharmacy on this application where you can order medications and medical equipment and get it delivered to your doorstep through their partnership with Famasi Africa one of the leading telemedicine in Africa. Apart from this, there is another option for online laboratories through their partnership with Healthtracka. 

From the comfort of your home you can do medical tests all you need to do is to book an appointment and laboratory technicians will come to your house for samples and you will get your result in 48 hours. 

Currently, JEAY Healthcare's scope only covers the Southwestern part of Nigeria and 130 daily users between the age of 18-24 has been recorded since the application was launched in February 2023 according to the founder and CEO Jesutoni Omiye.

According to one of the users who have used the application, Tiwatope Omobolaji said she likes their services, she was properly informed about her health, and how it is user-friendly. 

What are the limitations:

JEAY Healthcare in its effort to provide easy and quick access to medical treatment is not inclusive. The non-inclusivity starts from the fact that only people who are living in the Southwestern part of Nigeria can enjoy the benefit of getting medical tests from the comfort of their homes and medication delivery. 

Also, according to Statista, in 2022 it was only about 84 million out of over 200 million Nigerians amounting to over 38 percent that has access to the internet which means those that do not have access to the internet cannot use this application. 

It has also not put into consideration people with disabilities especially those that are visually impaired.