Private Sector Health Alliance shortlists 42 private sector innovations to support the Save One Million Lives Program

The Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN led by Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Jim Ovia, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Mr. Herbert Wigwe and Mrs. Sola David-Borha are leading the drive to spur private sector innovative approaches to addressing the leading causes of deaths in women and children.

The Alliance created the Nigerian Health Innovation Marketplace (NHIM) which was launched by AlhajiAlikoDangote and chaired by Mr. Herbert Wigwe. The NHIM focuses on:

I.               Identifying, spurring and scaling-up promising health innovations

II.             Providing an accelerator program to build capabilities and bring promising health innovations to market readiness.

III.           Connecting health innovators and entrepreneurs with thought leaders, investors and key players in business, government and philanthropy to enhance broad-scale innovations and social impact.

Following the development of bespoke problem statements across multiple tracks including increasing access to health coverage, service delivery models, data and performance management systems, topical public health issues, the $1 million Health Innovation Challenge (HIC) is targeted at addressing these priority problem statements that if addressed will support the scale-up of basic primary health care services and contribute to the Saving One Million Lives (SOML) program.

The Private Sector Health Alliance has shortlisted 42 innovations out of over 1, 000 entries received across all geopolitical zones of the country. The shortlisted innovations demonstrate a blend of social impact and commercial viability-prioritizing on bold innovations in service delivery that can potentially disrupt the Primary Health Care (PHC) system.

Dr. Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, Chief Executive Officer, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN), revealed that the shortlisted innovations were diverse and cut across the health care value chain including local manufacturers of Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTFs) for malnutrition‎, emergency referral support solutions, innovative malaria point-of-care diagnostic tools, mobile health applications to support Universal Health Coverage, smartphone disease surveillance system, amongst many others.

According to Dr. Muntaqa, “The next phase of HIC will focus on an accelerator program for shortlisted innovators. The business development bootcamp is slated to hold in August 2015 for the shortlisted innovators. The goal of the bootcamp is to transform the shortlisted innovations from their current stages into full-blown sustainable and viable social enterprises.

Winners of the challenge will pilot or implement their innovations for a period of 12 months. The Alliance will provide innovation fund management expertise and has put together a technical assistance team of core health and business subject matter experts to support the implementation process and drive results.

For a full list of innovators shortlisted for the second phase of the HIC 2015, visit http://nhim.phn.ng/competition/sht-lst/64/stage_1/stage_2

For more information, kindly visit

Website: www.phn.ng and www.nhim.phn.ng

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Twitter: @PHN_alliance and @NHIMbyPHN