EP.07 | Africa CDC’s Continental Vision — Health Tech for 1.4 Billion People
In this episode of the TechAfrica News Podcast, Chief Editor and Founder, Akim Benamara, sits down with Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Chief Digital Advisor at the Africa CDC, for a thought-provoking conversation on the future of health tech in Africa. With decades of experience in public health and digital transformation, Nsengimana offers unique insights into AI, telemedicine, and cross-border innovation in Africa.
Talking Points
- 00:45 — Nsengimana’s Journey & Africa CDC’s Vision
- 1:46 — Unlocking Africa’s Health Tech Potential
- 4:21 — Investment & Telemedicine: Catalysts for Change
- 12:51 — AI, Data & Infrastructure: Building the Digital Backbone
- 19:58 — Collaboration & Innovation: Driving Progress
- 35:54 — Future Outlook & Key Priorities
Africa’s youth are building solutions, startups are springing up in innovation hubs, and the post-COVID reality has laid bare the need for digital-first healthcare. So how do we move from potential to product-market fit? What will it take to create Africa’s first health tech unicorn—and more importantly, to ensure it serves the 1.4 billion lives that need it most?
Africa doesn’t lack health tech innovation—it lacks scale. Nsengimana believes the continent’s young innovators are brimming with ideas. “If we could produce a zebra unicorn, that would be a sign we’re getting there,” he said—pointing to the dream of a sustainable, socially driven health tech company that thrives both economically and in impact.
Four systemic barriers are keeping Africa’s health tech ecosystem from taking off:
- Infrastructure: Over 50% of African health facilities lack basic power or internet connectivity.
- Skills: Gaps exist among healthcare workers, innovators, and even policymakers.
- Fragmented Regulation: Disjointed policies across borders prevent scale.
- Capital: Health tech lacks the short-term return that investors chase unlike FinTech.
Despite these challenges, Nsengimana insists momentum is building, highlighting initiatives like Smart Africa’s push for a single digital health market.
Telemedicine: A Launchpad for Scale
One area ripe for acceleration is telemedicine. While Africa’s use of remote health services tripled during COVID-19, global growth outpaced it by a factor of 40. The potential for telemedicine to fill access gaps—especially in underserved regions—is enormous. Nsengimana pointed to the Africa Health Tech Hub in Kigali, where 40+ startups are actively building solutions worth backing.
“Africa is moving towards the universal health coverage objective by 2030. But if we look at the speed at which we’ve been moving, I don’t think we’re going to reach that if we continue to move at the same speed. To ensure that everyone across the continent—regardless of where they live or their income level—has access to basic health services, we must accelerate our efforts. So just investing seriously into telemedicine would be a starting point.” – Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Chief Digital Advisor, Africa CDC
The Digital Health Lifecycle
Africa CDC, under Dr. Jean Kaseya’s leadership, is pushing a vision where every African has a digital health record, from birth to social security. Health data becomes the backbone of transformation across sectors, from education to social insurance. This “horizontal health record” vision rests on three things:
- Partnering with satellite and mobile industries to connect every citizen
- Tracking individuals’ health over a lifetime to drive proactive care
- Integrating health into digital infrastructure to catalyze other public services
AI, Big Data, and the Future of Preparedness
Artificial Intelligence is poised to play a key role in Africa’s disease surveillance and healthcare delivery. “AI connects information in real time that would be difficult for humans to piece together,” Nsengimana noted, citing Gates Foundation-backed pilots in primary care. While concerns around privacy persist, federated systems now allow decentralized data analysis without needing to centralize sensitive health records. “The most important thing is not centralization—it’s access,” he added.
Accelerating Innovation: Marketplace Meets Sandbox
Africa CDC is doing more than talking. The Health Tech Marketplace now curates vetted African innovations, ready for countries and investors to explore. A sandbox model is in the works to fast-track testing—especially for AI-based solutions. “If someone says their innovation uses AI, we want to know what kind of data they’re training it on,” Nsengimana emphasized.
Cross-Border Scaling and Brainpower
Policy harmonization remains a challenge. Nsengimana stressed the need for regional blueprints to help promising solutions scale beyond their home markets. He also challenged the binary brain drain narrative, reminding listeners that remittances now outpace development aid and that talent can flow both ways. “The real challenge,” he said, “is how we value and harness the talent we already have.”
About our Guest
Jean Philbert Nsengimana is the Chief Digital Health Advisor at Africa CDC and a leading voice in Africa’s digital transformation. A former Rwandan Minister of Youth and ICT, he has driven major initiatives like Smart Africa and YouthConnekt Africa. With global advisory roles and degrees from Harvard and SP Jain, Nsengimana is focused on leveraging tech and data to shape the future of health across the continent.
