African leaders have been urged to invest heavily in technology for their respective countries’ healthcare systems to ensure the continent overcomes its numerous critical healthcare challenges.
Mr. Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, who addressed the call, said there is a need to strengthen healthcare systems with modern technology to solve Africa’s health needs.
Mr. Tijani said this at a breakfast meeting during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, organized by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and co-hosted by Zipline among others, on the theme: “Innovation at Scale: Ensuring health and well-being. “
He said governments should be empowered to use available modern technologies to ensure that healthcare information is accessible to citizens.
While there may be many facilities, the lack of technological connections could hinder the proper delivery of healthcare, he said, and emphasized the importance of creating ecosystems that could support and scale innovations to address healthcare challenges and other development issues.
Mr. Tijani cited Rwanda as a good example of countries that have laid the foundations and provided an ecosystem to foster innovation, leading to the successful resolution of its challenges.
Technological investments like Zipline’s have served as catalysts for health progress and development, he said, and he called for investment in basic infrastructure to accelerate growth.
He said the drone technology recently introduced by Zipline to distribute essential medical products including vaccines and blood to several communities in Ghana and Nigeria within the shortest possible time.
This showed that investing in modern technology could significantly improve the quality of healthcare for patients while making the work of healthcare professionals easy and efficient in Africa.
Source: GNA