NewTech Friday: DanAid – Offering low cost health cover in West Africa

Fabrice Mbanga is the CEO and Founder of DanAid, an innovative insurtech created in Cameroon that enables low-income populations to have access to an affordable health insurance service.

What led to the creation of DanAid?

Healthcare access is a universal problem, and in Cameroon as in the rest of West Africa, patients must pay for all their healthcare needs out of pocket and upfront. This in a country where 71% of households are poor (i.e. living on less than €5 daily). Family heads having to choose between food on the table and healthcare often opt to delay, skip, or forgo care for their loved ones, with often disastrous consequences. There are countless stories of patient who died at hospital gates while the family was hustling for money to get the care started. There are also countless stories of hospitals who resort to imprisoning women and babies for months until the family can reimburse care expenses. 

Although I had always been acutely aware of the problem, the decision to start DanAid has been a slow awareness rather than a sudden epiphany. My father was a nurse. As I was growing up, I could notice people visiting our home to request various healthcare services in the hope of saving some money from dreaded hospital visits. I later worked three years as a pharmaceutical firm representative in Cameroon. In this capacity, I visited hundreds of healthcare organizations, meeting with thousands of doctors, nurses and pharmacists across the country. I was able to form a deep insight into the inner workings of the healthcare industry in Cameroon, combining both the users’ and providers’ perspective.