- CarePay, a subsidiary of PharmAccess, now connects more than 4.7 million Kenyans to medical insurance
- The digital insurance, launched in the Kenyan market as M-TIBA in 2016, offers services to more than 5,000 hospitals
- In a tour conducted in March 2023, Dutch Minister for Trade and Development, Reinette Klever received a brief on how the PharmAccess platform has transformed healthcare
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journalist Wycliffe Musalia has over six years of experience in financial, business, technology, climate and health reporting, which offers deep insights into Kenyan and global economic trends.
More than 4 million Kenyans now have access to digital health insurance in the country.
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This was demonstrated during the Dutch Minister for Trade and Development, Reinette Klever's, visit to PharmAccess Kenya.
Klever visited PharmAccess on March 17, 2025, to learn how digital data-driven innovations and Dutch investments are transforming healthcare in Kenya and beyond.
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The visit was part of the recent Dutch economic mission to Kenya, held in parallel to the State Visit led by His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
During her visit, Minister Klever toured the CarePay offices, engaging with Dutch and Kenyan entrepreneurs at the forefront of healthcare innovation.
CarePay was founded in 2016 through a Dutch-Kenya collaboration between PharmAccess, Investment Fund for Health in Africa (IFHA) and Kenyan telco Safaricom.
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The company has expanded business to the UAE, with its technology now being explored as a model to address fragmentation in the Dutch healthcare system.
The Minister and her delegation witnessed a live demonstration of CarePay’s platform, also known as M-TIBA in East Africa, showcasing how patients register for health insurance on their mobile phone, how financial claims are being paid in real time, and how the system creates accountability on claim payments.
The technology gives patients control of their data, allowing them to share data with other clinics, which improves the care process.
"The platform has already connected 4.7 million Kenyans and over 5,100 healthcare providers and has contracted several major insurance companies in the health market," read a statement from PharmAccess seen by TUKO.co.ke.
Support from the Dutch Ministry of Trade and Development enables these innovations to take place, fostering an ecosystem where digital solutions can enhance healthcare accessibility and efficiency.
She also met with key stakeholders, including CEOs of private insurance and healthcare providers, who shared insights on how digital innovations are improving the quality and profitability of their business models.
This included an introduction to the Medical Credit Fund’s (MCF’s) digital lending program, which enables healthcare providers to easily access loans using their mobile phone, with short processing times, flexible repayment and no collateral required.
This enables healthcare entrepreneurs, many of which are women, to grow their businesses, improve their services and buy essential medical equipment, addressing a huge financing gap that SMEs in the health sector are facing. So far MCF has loaned USD 195 million to over 2,300 African healthcare businesses, with a loan repayment rate of 96%.
The delegation also visited an AAR Clinic at Sarit Center in Westlands, Nairobi, part of a wider network of 29 outpatient clinics under AAR Healthcare, one of Kenya’s leading private healthcare providers.
The AAR network, serving over 300,000 patients annually, has been a key beneficiary of digital innovations enabled through a partnership with PharmAccess and CarePay. The Sarit Center branch alone handles an average of 112 patients daily, with 17% of them accessing services via M-TIBA.
The system has reduced insurance claim processing time from 77 days to just 3 days, significantly improving cash flow for healthcare providers and enhancing the patient experience.
Nicole Spieker, CEO of PharmAccess:
“This technology gives patients control of their data, allowing them to share data with other clinics which improves the care process. Africa is well-positioned to leapfrog health innovations that can be adapted globally, driving global need for health innovation.”
