Kenyan health enterprises make GE list for mentorship, funding

Six Kenyan social enterprises are among 14 African community health providers selected by US conglomerate General Electric (GE) in a mentorship programme that puts them in line to receive financing from investors in the US.

The six— Access Afya, Ayzh, Health-E-Net, Hewa Tele, Lwala Community Alliance and Village HopeCore International — were revealed yesterday in Nairobi by GE.

The other firms on the list are based in Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“This programme culminates in a “premier pitch” event where 14 finalists will present their respective enterprises to an audience of potential investors,” said Jay Ireland, president and chief executive of GE Africa.

“This group is helping solve some of Africa’s biggest health challenges through their initiatives aimed at improving mother and child care. This is another great example of the strong entrepreneurial spirit in Africa,”

The 14 were picked by GE and received training and mentorship from GE’s healthymagination mother and child programme, which aims to improve maternal and child health in Africa.

Lwala Community Alliance managing director Julius Mbeya said that the health challenges facing the low income areas cannot be sufficiently met through government financing alone, hence the need for the community based organisations to step in.

“At the village level it will involve empowering community health workers to be able to deal with some of the problems where doctors or financing from the government may not be available,” said Mr Mbeya.

Kenya depends on donor or foreign funding to run some key health programmes such as those targeting HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, which are mainly community based.

This foreign funding has recently come under risk after reports of scandal at the ministry of health— although it has not been clear whether donors would push for withdrawal from grassroots programmes like those selected by GE.

The US government through the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief has steadily been cutting funding from $514 million (Sh52.9 billion) in 2013 to $482 million (Sh49.6 billion) last year, a figure the National Aids Control Council (NACC) projects will reduce further this year.

Other top donors that have withdrawn or cut back HIV/Aids funding to Kenya are Clinton Foundation, Belgium’s MSF, Japan International Cooperation Agency, and Britain’s DfID, according to the NACC.

“The inflated costs of procurement brought to light in the Sh5 billion scandal (at the Health ministry) pushes away investors because they see possible cash flow risks. We have to be open around this fact,” said NACC deputy director for HIV investments Regina Ombam last week.