Top African leaders including Heads of States, Ministers, CEOs as well as representatives from the African Union and United Nations will converge at the inaugural Africa Business: Health Forum billed to hold in Ethiopia on 12th February 2019 on the margins of the 32nd African Union Summit.
The Forum is meant to unify Africa’s key decision makers in exploring opportunities for catalysing growth in the continent’s economy, through business partnerships to invest in the health sector.
The inter-relationship between the health of employees and economic growth is increasingly taking centre stage in many African countries, and business is being pushed to exploring how to maximise shareholder value as a complex interplay between financial, human, social and environmental return.
African business entrepreneurs are waking up to the reality that good health is good business, and investing in health is both a business and social imperative, with studies showing that by 2030, business opportunities in the health and wellness sector will reach $1.8 trillion in current prices.
Investing in African health systems is an opportunity to accelerate economic development and growth, contribute to saving millions of lives, prevent life-long disabilities, and move countries closer to achieving Sustainable Development Goals and Africa’s Agenda 2063.
“From a business standpoint, we are beginning to see the opportunities that could be created by focusing on improving and investing in health,” says Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, a renowned financier and Co- Chair, GBCHealth.
According to him, there is a need to close the gap on the inequality of life in Africa from a healthcare standpoint. “We must look to develop a universal plan that shifts the needle as far as healthcare in Africa is concerned”.
Aigboje further expressed that health must cease being a source of pain and become a source of prosperity instead.
Now, the ABHF is the vision of GBCHealth, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the Aliko Dangote Foundation. Its objective is to drive business leadership, strengthen partnerships, and facilitate investments to change the face of healthcare in Africa.
Accordingly, the organisers have said that the Forum will culminate in the launch of the African Business Coalition for Health (ABCHealth), a coalition that will mobilise a core group of private sector champions through a coordinated platform to advance health outcomes and shape health systems across Africa.
ABCHealth will serve as the regional platform to unlock synergies that will contribute more directly to a healthy and prosperous Africa, enabled by collaboration and business partnerships.
Reiterating the need for business leaders to key into this vision the Group President, Dangote Group and Chairman, Aliko Dangote Foundation, Aliko Dangote said: “The best way to move Africa forward is for businesses to step up in health care and take bold action”.
He added that they must work together across industries and with governments and communities to foster innovation and drive more strategic investments that benefit them collectively.
Dangote said: “The time is now for a new era of cooperation in Africa that will position its people, communities and businesses for success, now and in the future.” Good health is not only an outcome of, but also a foundation for, development
Speaking also, the Executive Secretary, UNECA, Vera Songwe, said: “The Commission will play a role in the design and implementation of policy frameworks around the financing of healthcare through Public Private Partnerships and the private sector.”
She, however, mentioned that building on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), this will also encourage regional trans-boundary health investments especially in the pharmaceutical sector.”
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