Safaricom's M-TIBA

Safaricom's M-TIBA

In Kenya, only one in five of the population has some form of financial protection from healthcare costs*. Safaricom’s M-TIBA is a service that allows anyone to send, save and spend funds specifically for medical treatment using their mobile phone. Money stored in M-TIBA can only be used to pay for treatment and medication at M-TIBA-registered clinics and hospitals.

M-TIBA is helping streamline the management of large-scale health financing schemes from insurers, the government and donors and is helping to make healthcare more accessible. There are now more than four million users of M-TIBA. Since launching in 2016, partners using the service have processed over 330,000 healthcare visits and have paid out over €5 million in medical costs.

As mobile penetration in Kenya is above 95%, M-TIBA is emerging as a secure and scalable platform to roll out essential health finance products.

* Kenya Utilisation Survey, 2014