#3: Emergency Response Africa
making emergency medical services accessible to Africans.
🎉 Theme of the Week
I find it absurd that people think healthcare isn’t a fundamental human right. Healthcare is a basic human right, and it’s even crazier that very few governments have gotten it right.
Like America’s, the African healthcare system is broken. Africans cannot rely on their government to provide them with proper healthcare infrastructure, not to talk of healthcare services.
What’s even worse is that the topic of healthcare has been stigmatized in African communities. Older Africans seem to be more reactive in managing their health, making them more susceptible to medical emergencies. And these are just some of the many problems plaguing healthcare in Africa.
The myriad of problems in Africa’s healthcare system has led younger folks to leverage technology in their search for a solution. The African health-technology sector is now bustling with many products hoping to solve at least one of these problems. So this week, we will be showcasing some of these products.
Our product theme for the week is “female-led health tech products.” The “female-led” spin was added because we need to showcase more African women doing amazing things 🤷🏾♀️
Without further ado, let’s introduce our first product of the week.
Product Profile
Name: Emergency Response Africa
Website: https://emergencyresponseafrica.com/
Countries Served: Nigeria for now
Product Area: Health-Tech
Pricing: [2,500-25,000 NGN quarterly]
Founders: Maame Poku, Folake Owodunni [CEO]
Company Funding Stage: Seed
Year Founded: 2019
Currently Hiring? Yes [Marketing & Customer Success Specialist and Emergency Medical Dispatcher]
In their own words:
Their Vision: An Africa where everyone can receive emergency medical care in 10 minutes or less.
Their Mission: Fast, safe, and affordable emergency care across Africa.
Emergency Response Africa is a healthcare technology company that is changing how medical emergencies are managed in Africa, beginning in Nigeria.
We are creating a scalable emergency medical services system by combining training, technology, and transportation.
Using our technology application, we are building the largest network of first responders, emergency response vehicles, and verified emergency-ready hospitals across Nigeria that are connected to emergency victims.
This end-to-end subscription service ensures that in any medical emergency, we deliver the right level of care at the scene, and if needed, the patient is transferred to the most appropriate hospital for prompt treatment.
What people are saying about Emergency Response Africa:
In Conclusion:
As someone who spent most of her life in Nigeria, I experienced firsthand how hard it is to get help during an emergency. I’ve seen people lose their lives because they couldn’t get emergency care quickly enough. I’m extremely grateful for the Emergency Response Africa team and the critical problem they’re solving.
What makes it all the more impressive is the affordability of the product. Considering the fact that the minimum wage in Nigeria is 30,000 NGN, I think having a basic tier of the product at 2,500 NGN per quarter [833.33 NGN per month] is impressive. At 833.33 NGN a month, a family of 4 can get all the emergency services they may need. It doesn’t get cheaper than that.
I also admire the business structure. Outside connecting people to emergency medical services, they also provide emergency readiness training for hospitals. Everything about this product screams ✨intentional ✨
Emergency Response Africa is solving a huge problem for Africans. I can’t wait to see where they go with this product!
If you like what you’ve seen so far, you can check Emergency Response Africa out for yourself here.
Bowing out:
That’s it for this issue! I hope you found it insightful. If you have feedback on how we can improve the newsletter, please send it to me here.
If you have any products you’ll like for us to feature, you can nominate them here.
If you have theme ideas, you can share them here.
See you in the next issue. What do you think the next product will be? Tell us on Twitter @vizibleafrica.
Yours in Product Discovery,
Dumss