M-TIBA

The M-TIBA mobile health wallet, developed by CarePay, Safaricom and PharmAccess, allows users to send, save and receive dedicated funds to access healthcare services using their mobile phones. It is a closed loop where these conditional funds can only be used for healthcare costs at selected providers.

This is a first step in creating new digital solidarity mechanisms where people start paying for each other. The rich for the poor, the healthy for the sick, communities for an individual. The strength of M-TIBA is that it builds on top of existing solidarity instruments like the popular Chama saving groups or the Harambee “local fundraising event”, making them way more efficient.  But more importantly, it allows us, with help from Safaricom, to identify vulnerable groups such as pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS in the slums, and place the financial support directly in the power of their hands, on their mobile phone.

Since its official launch we are proud to share that 140,000 people have already registered on M-TIBA and 301 healthcare providers signed up in Nairobi and two other districts in Kenya. This means more than 750 new members per day and 10 providers sign up each week. In total 83 million Kenyan shillings has been spent in medical treatment through M-TIBA.

Learn more about M-TIBA from Arafa Ahmed a clinic administrator, Agnes Anyango an M-TIBA user and Alice Machichi M-TIBA Product Manager:

“For many Kenyans a trip to the clinic can create real financial strain. And it can have a knock-on effect in people holding down jobs, or having to sell their belongings to pay for basic care. M-TIBA can extend and transform essential services for millions of Kenyans. This is just the start of what we can do together to transform Kenya’s healthcare sector.”
– Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom 

In September, CNBC Africa featured M-TIBA as a game changer in Kenya’s health sector: