NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 13 – M-TIBA has registered 500,000 users on the mobile health platform six months after launch, with an average of 4,000 people signing up every day.
The mobile health wallet developed by CarePay, PharmAccess and Safaricom, allows users to send, save, receive and pay for healthcare services using their mobile phones.
Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom says the growth of M-TIBA users has surpassed expectations.
“A majority of Kenyans are excluded from mainstream health insurance schemes. M-TIBA empowers them to take care of their own healthcare and roll over their savings from month to month,” said Collymore
Users can save funds into their own wallets, accessing them quickly in the event of sickness, or to pay for preventive care. They can receive money from caregivers and donors, who can be certain that the money will be used for health only.
Chief Executive Officer of CarePay, Kees van Lede, hitting the half a million mark is a first milestone in rolling out M-TIBA across Kenya.
“By restricting the funds in the platform’s individual wallets to healthcare only, people have more money available when struck with illness. It is encouraging to see a gradual reduction in out-of-pocket expenses. This is an important step towards greater healthcare inclusion.”
The platform has recorded over 60,000 clinic visits across the 350 M-TIBA healthcare facilities and over Sh100 million in medical payouts.