Watch: M-Tiba is increasing access to critical services in Kenya

Many Kenyans can’t afford to seek medical treatment when they need it, and without access to financial services they are unable to plan and save for hospital bills. Safaricom’s M-TIBA is a technology platform that allows users to save and pay for health insurance and medical expenses. It was developed in partnership between Safaricom, CarePay and PharmAccess and uses mobile to connect healthcare providers, payers and patients and improve the large-scale management of health schemes and support access to healthcare. Since the platform’s launch in 2016, there are over 4.7 million M-TIBA users who are enabled to control of their finances and pay for treatment at over 3 000 designated healthcare facilities in Kenya.

Vital services like M-Tiba can only be utilised through accessible 4G-enabled devices. Read our new Africa.connected 4G access paper on why multilevel-partner interventions are needed to achieve digital inclusion and enable the economic and social gains that 4G connectivity brings.