Health Financing
Supporting ‘Nurse-preneurs’ to provide high-quality,
low-cost health facilities
In Rwanda, where Kumwe Hub is based, and in many countries across East and Southern Africa where we work, considerable gaps persist in provision of basic health care. Kumwe Hub recognises that NGO funding is not going to fill this gap and neither is Government funding in the countries we work in.
Our approach is therefore to empower the local private sector (with a focus on female entrepreneurs) to set up and run sustainable, high quality health services for underserved communities. Low cost private health clinics are set up in areas of high need and low current provision, such as in rural areas, just outside refugee camps or in low income inner city high density areas to compliment our existing health work with local Ministries of Health.
We offer 1) Low Interest Loans 2) A Package of Support including how to run a clinic as a business, to enable local female nurses to run health services in their communities.
We offer:
- Low Interest Loans
- A Package of Support including how to run a clinic as a business, to enable local female nurses to run health services in their communities
In many of the countries we work in the only current health service options are either:
-
SCI, other NGO or Government free services, which are extremely stretched and characterized
by long waiting times or - Very expensive private clinics, which are unaffordable for most of the population.
The objective
The objective is to increase accessibility to quality basic healthcare by bringing targeted maternal and child health healthcare services closer to people who need them while improving the quality and sustainability of healthcare services delivered and relieving pressure to public health services.
Through this innovative approach, we plan to establish a network of low-cost private health facilities across the region, primarily in under-served and refugee hosting locations. Clinics will be owned and managed by nurse entrepreneurs (‘Nurse-preneurs’) with technical support from MoH, Rhiza Babuliye and with repayable start-up capital provided by Kumwe Hub.
Each clinic will runs for a test period of six-twelve months where we train, support and supervise the facilities’ operations after which time the Nurse-preneurs operate independently. They continue to receive technical and strategic support from us to ensure quality control.
Impact
Each clinics sees around 1,650 patients a month, with approximately 70% female and 50% children in a currently under-served community.
Our Metrics include
- Output numbers of women and children seen
- Reduced loss of productivity due to health care seeking
- Improved outcomes for children and pregnant and lactating women
- Reducing the burden on overstretched state health care facilities and long wait times
How We do This:
Kumwe Hub receives money from its network of investors and donors. Either this is a grant that donors don’t expect back but want to be sustainably re-used for multiple projects. Or it’s an investment taken at a rate of maximum 3% return.
We then ‘on-lend’ that finance to Nurse-preneurs at a below market interest rate through our financial intermediaries (such as Goshen Finance and Inkomoko). The selected Nurse-preneurs use this investment to set-up clinics and run them until profitable.
In addition, Kumwe Hub – through Save the Children’s Health TAs – provides them with business support services to ensure excellence in the management and quality of the health services, as well as decreasing the risks of loan default.
Underpinning it all is a strong impact assessment model that will enable Kumwe Hub to measure the impact of the investment and the technical assistance on the availability and quality of health services.
In parallel, Kumwe Hub conducts advocacy activities with both governments and financial institutions to create a more favorable environment for low cost private health clinics to operate.
As the Nurse-preneurs pay back the loan with a small interest, investors get their money back and/or its reinvested into other clinics. Kumwe Hub keeps a small percentage of the repaid amount to a) cover our own overheads, and b) provide grants (not loans) to other Health Clinics who are running services that are difficult to make profitable, such as ASRH services.
