clinicPesa | Disruptive Health care Financial Inclusion

clinicPesa provides access to healthcare financing through a digitized loans and savings platform to uninsured low-income citizens in East Africa

For uninsured low-income earners in East Africa, clinicPesa provides access to healthcare financing that is more affordable and convenient than traditional health insurance through a digital mobile micro loans and savings platform dedicated to offset medical bills and purchase drugs in time of need at any clinic, hospital or pharmacy registered by clinicPesa.

According to an NCBI and Ministry of Health publication 2016, under 1% of the 41,652,938 people in Uganda have access to health insurance and this situation hardly changes when one goes to Kenya where only 20% of the 48,466,928 citizens have access to health insurance due to the compulsory insurance scheme.

Even in communities with some access to primary care, all these people cannot afford even the most essential health services when they fall sick and require extensive care. This increases the out of pocket expenditure towards medical bills while putting their lives at stake as there is no individual healthcare plan, need for antenatal care or an emergency.

This has in-turn led to increased debt and poverty as they end up selling their source of livelihoods to raise funds, death or permanent complications in most cases, frustration to government health programs and unnecessary dependence on government and donor aid as the number of uninsured citizens is innumerable.

clinicPesa solves the problem of unpreparedness towards access to healthcare finances due to;

•community bias towards insurance as locals do not re-subscribe to insurance plans after loss of their annual UNUSED insurance premiums

• unaffordability as insurance premiums are very high and unaffordable for these people,

• inaccessibility as insurance concentrates in urban areas, hence insurance underserve to peri-urban and rural areas

With the clinicPesa platform, Users set aside funds ranging from as low as UGX 500 in Uganda, KSH 10 in Kenya or USD 0.2 in a cumulative manner into their clinicPesa accounts using the already dominant mobile money platform in-order to offset their medical bills and buy drugs at the time of need at any clinicPesa registered clinic, hospital or pharmacy within Uganda and Kenya.

This can be done at their convenience either daily/weekly and monthly as they can even set a standing order.

Every time the user sets aside funds, that transaction record is used to build a healthcare credit score for the user's credit line. clinicPesa users can then get short-term smaller extensions (inform of loans) on top of their savings and annual bonuses to offset their medical bills and purchase of medicine.

With the clinicPesa platform,Users will be able to prepare for their healthcare in time which means reduction in /no out of pocket expenditure, health care becomes affordable, accessibility to decent healthcare for everyone, and also since clinicPesa users can share funds this will promote community contributions and solidarity among them all.

Health care facilities in turn can receive their money in real time for liquidation to re-invest back to their business operations and proper documented financial records for access to credit lines from financial institutions leading to improved and better health care services.

Our solution is innovative because it leverages on the already dominant mobile money platforms in East Africa to digitize and enhance accessibility of the service. clinicPesa will be accessed on these very platforms to enable Users to save, request for a loan, pay medical bills and also purchase drugs in real-time and eliminates the manual methods of paper work and lost records. It also has an Auto-save and Share fund Feature which enables continuous saving and also promote social responsibility among community members.

Our solution leverages on the already dominant mobile money platforms in East Africa and can be accessed through USSD for featured phones, it is also synchronized to the Android and Web platform to enable Users to save, request for a loan, pay medical bills and also purchase drugs in real-time.

 It also uses complex technologies to perform credit scoring used to determine loan limits for the users. The system itself is also adaptive and can be replicated in another country to enable other users enjoy the services too. 

• To have all the over 6,000 healthcare facilities registered on to the clinicPesa platform to enhance access of the service at all facilities.
• To have over 1,000,000 users registered on to clinicPesa platform and actively using the service.
• To reduce the out of pocket expenditures in households this will be determined through quantitative results from the users
• To set up a customer call center to handle customer queries and concerns
• To expand our services to Kenya and also market research in other member states where the service can be replicated.

• To be fully established in Uganda with all the health care Service Providers registered onto our platform and the Users will be able to pay for services using clinicPesa at any health care facility.
• Health care facilities will have improved their services or even better opened up other branches in different areas to provide services to over 3,500,000 people
• We shall be having a package for expectant mothers to be able to save for post-natal care activities
• There will be reduced or no out of pocket expenditures, improvement in the livelihoods of the people among others and economic growth.

• clinicPesa has been designed such it is available on all platforms right from USSD for feature phones, Android and Web, It also leverages on existing mobile money which a vast majority are already familiar with, enhancing usability.
• We shall send our users SMS reminders utmost thrice a week including their balance and loan limit to encourage them meet their targets. The App also has an autosave feature through which a user can set their automatic savings.
• clinicPesa users won’t lose their unused annual funds but will gain interest on their hard-earned money which is very motivating.

• Currently we have 1,000 users who are accessing our platform through the USSD and Web portal 

• To have over 1,000,000 users registered on to clinicPesa platform and actively using the service in the next 12 months.
• To have over 3,000,000 users registered on to clinicPesa platform and actively using the service in the next 3 years. 

Onyancha Chrispinus the team lead and Chief Executive Officer having worked on large systems with banks, media houses and school that processes more than 100,000 user requests simultaneously using technologies like Akka and running on Scala language and Java;

Ivan Mworozi having worked on multi-national corporation for more than 15 years, in the technological field and currently working with clinicPesa as the Chief Technical Officer; and

Anyango Sharon a Quantity Surveyor by profession having worked in many different construction sites, has excellent managerial skills and currently the Chief Operating Officer.  

We have four revenue models

• loan fees on top for loans requested,
• 1% withdrawal fees by healthcare providers
• 1% Cost of Funds payable by the bank
• Commission from direct mobile money payments

With all these channels of revenue, we will breakeven within 15 months with our initial investment of USD 500,000. We will then generate a profit of about USD 200,000 within the next 6 months with a high growth rate. This profit will then be injected back into the business for expansion and growth to other potential markets 

MIT Solve is a marketplace connecting innovators with resources to solve Global Challenges. This is just the perfect place for clinicPesa because our initiative will enable over 80million people in Uganda and Kenya to prepare for their health care in time of need. It will lessen the burden of debt, out of pocket expenditures and also improve livelihoods of very many people.

With exposure to the solve network, we will get to meet potential investors, potential partners and funders, mentors in our area of business who will work together with clinicPesa in order to change lives positively.

For our solution to be accessible at all facilities, the platform has to register all facilities country which involves a lot of time and funds, clinicPesa being a start-up is in the process of getting all these funds.

Solve can help clinicPesa through exposure to potential investors and potential funders.