$30m for Nigeria, four others to boost private healthcare sector

A new emergency loan guarantee facility has made available over $30 million to private and small and medium enterprise (SME) health providers in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for continued essential services, including malaria diagnosis and treatment, to more than five million Africans.

The facility, Open Doors African Private Healthcare Initiative, is to address the economic crunch in sub-Saharan Africa, and was created by the Health Finance Coalition (HFC), a group of leading philanthropies, investors, donors and technical partners committed to strengthening primary healthcare delivery on the continent.

It consists of a catalytic $700,000 investment by the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), a $17.7 million loan guarantee from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and a $1.5 million funding from The Rockefeller Foundation, Skoll Foundation and the MCJ Amelior Foundation.