Swedfund supports health entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa

Healthcare infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa is insufficient to meet the healthcare needs of its 1.1 billion population. Swedfund, the Swedish Development Finance Institution, now commits EUR 5M in debt funding to Medical Credit Fund II (“MCF II”), a fund that provides financing to small and medium-sized enterprises within the health sector(“SMEs”) in Sub-Saharan Africa. This investment is well aligned with Swedfund’s goal to support sustainable businesses that improve access and quality of health care for under-served patients.

According to the World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa has 2 physicians and 12 beds per 10,000 people, compared to the world average of 16 physicians and 29 beds. Majority of this limited infrastructure is in urban areas where only 41% of the population lives. Approximately 50% of healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa is provided by the private sector.

- MCF II is bridging a critical gap in supporting access, affordability and quality healthcare to low-income groups at a scale that no other debt fund is currently doing. Our investment aims to increase access to healthcare for women and children who are the primary beneficiaries of health care goods and services that MCF supports, says Maria Håkansson, CEO of Swedfund.

Borrowers of MCF II are often small primary care clinics providing services mostly within maternal and child health as well as treatment and prevention of malaria. According to MCF, low to very low-income segments account for 59% of patients at the facilities supported by MCF.

MCF will deploy the funding to further scale its impact across sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on advancing its digital loan products.

About MCF
Since its foundation, Medical Credit Fund has provided over 6,500 loans to healthcare providers in Africa. It has reached 1,800 health small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. Loans are combined with support for business and quality improvement using the PharmAccess – SafeCare standards and methodology, through which 80% of the clients are able to improve their services.

The MCF II business model is based on three pillars: provision of digital and term loans, quality improvement, and business skills training. Borrowers are thus empowered to improve their services and capacity to increase patient access to quality and affordable healthcare services and products.  More than 50% of patients served are women and 20% of borrowers are women owned businesses.

MCF II also qualifies as a gender investment under the 2X Challenge. Swedfund together with CDC Group and FMO, have signed an MOU with MCF to commit MCF II as a 2X investment.