Safaricom has launched a new health payment platform ‘M-Tiba’ in a bid to deepen the ability of citizens to access healthcare. The platform will deliver a mobile wallet that channels donor funds meant for health services directly to recipients, allowing for the effective tracking and monitoring the use of funds.
The platform is a partnership with PharmAcess Foundation and Carepay and has been on trial for the last nine months at 44 clinics reaching 10,000 beneficiaries.
According to the National Health Accounts report, the total health expenditure for the 2012/2013 was Kshs.234 billion. At the moment the donor community funds about 30% of this and they are not able to track use of the funds disbursed. However with M-Tiba, funds are placed in a specialized health wallet through M-pesa and their use is restricted to conditional spending at select healthcare providers who form part of a nationwide M-Tiba network. The beauty of it is that donors will be able to monitor in real time for the use of their funds.
Bob Collymore, the Safaricom CEO stated that they are extending the capability of the mobile phone to make tangible difference in the way healthcare is delivered in Kenya. M-Tiba will allow services to reach previously inaccessible areas to transform the way healthcare is delivered.
The Pfizer Foundation is the first donor partner which will use the M-Tiba platform to reach people in the slums in Nairobi