MOBicure

I am applying for the Elevate Prize because I envision MOBicure as the primary provider of technology solutions to make healthcare accessible and affordable to every man, woman, child and youth in Africa and the rest of the developing world. 

In the last six years, our mobile applications have impacted the lives of 125,000 women, children and young people. However, I know I can do more. Through MOBicure, my goal is to reach 500,000 people by 2023, which could be achieved with the investment and support of The Elevate Prize. 

Winning the Prize would help scale up the user base and features of MOBicure’s mobile apps. Moreover, access to your foundation’s network would enable me to engage in knowledge exchange on best practices and strategies in implementing social impact initiatives.

The network would also give MOBicure a platform to amplify our work to a wider audience. Building recognition for the effectiveness of our apps would help attract more funders and in-kind contributors to support our organization. More importantly, we aim to inspire ordinary people around the world to create positive changes within their local communities, and to revisit and challenge assumptions and biases towards sexual and reproductive health.

While I was undergoing my internship program after medical school in 2014, a woman brought her four-month-old baby girl to the hospital. The baby, looking very weak and pale, had diarrhea, and her mother had been managing the situation at home for days, partly because she thought it was nothing serious, and also because she could not afford a hospital.

Only when the symptoms persisted was the baby brought to the hospital. Unfortunately, it was too late. The baby was already severely dehydrated, and died five minutes after she was admitted. Losing the baby was very personal and painful to me because that mother was my own cousin. 

This experience prompted me to co-found MOBicure in 2015, a social enterprise that provides solutions to Nigeria and Africa’s biggest health problems using mobile technology. Our mobile applications, OMOMI and myPaddi, tackle core problems in maternal, child, sexual and reproductive health by providing health information; direct access to medical personnel; and a community to support mothers, children and young adults in Nigeria and other countries.

To create more impact, our goal is to increase our user base to 500,000 users by 2023.

MOBicure seeks to bridge the health gap for 95% of Nigerians who cannot access affordable healthcare. Since they are not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme and live below the poverty line, it is difficult to get medical help when needed.

 As a result, 158 women die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth daily. Among those who get pregnant every year, almost 1 million are teenage girls. Most of the pregnancies are unwanted due to the prevailing sexual abuse that occurs in 1 out of 4 girls in Nigeria. Furthermore, 3.1 million Nigerians – 40% of whom are aged 15–24 years – are living with HIV. The economic impacts of COVID-19 have deepened these issues, making accessible medical services for mothers, babies and youth a necessity.

 MOBicure’s flagship solution is OMOMi, an app that provides access to maternal, child and reproductive health information as well as direct access to doctors – all at the touch of a button.

Our second solution is myPaddi, which complements OMOMi by tackling the problem of high maternal and child mortality before motherhood. myPaddi provides users with anonymous access to reproductive health information, counselors, doctors and a support community.

My work through MOBicure is innovative because it reimagines the way healthcare can be delivered and addressed. We have broken barriers by providing a low-cost service that enables users to access preventive care, seek consultation and gain support. At the core, we connect individuals directly with health professionals through their mobile phones. This contributes to addressing the health gap, which, in turn, creates a shift in how health services can be delivered in developing countries. 

For OMOMi, our app and website empower mothers to take control of their and their baby’s health through the following:

• Child growth monitor

• Vaccination Tracker

• Health Information

• Mothers’ Community

Unique to myPaddi is that users remain totally anonymous. Our users can chat directly with doctors, which young people find very convenient and affordable. The anonymity and support from a community of like-minded people in our solution have allowed many youth to express themselves and become conscious about their own health. Helping young people become more confident to speak up about their sexual health problems empowers them to make better decisions on sex, contraceptive use and prevention. Gradually we hope to reverse existing negative stereotypes of premarital sex in the country.

MOBicure is having an impact on humanity because it creates access to health, improving the knowledge, decision-making and behavior of women and youth towards the well-being of their bodies. With maternal mortality, natal mortality and sexual reproductive health considered human rights issues, MOBicure has made efforts to ensure that these outcomes are effectively met.

In the long run, we can see a drastic reduction in maternal and child deaths, HIV/AIDS among youth, unwanted teenage pregnancies and sexual violence, and an increase in safer abortions.

To make sure that we continue to reach our intended impact, we conduct bi-annual impact assessments to ascertain the effectiveness of the apps on the health outcomes of its users. 

In our latest assessment with OMOMi users, we found the following:

• 54.9% and 59.5% of our users revealed that the information they got from the platform was relevant to breastfeeding and immunization, respectively. 

• 44% of users revealed that OMOMi influenced them to breastfeed exclusively.

myPaddi conducted a survey among our users between August 2020 and February 2021, and found the following:

• Increased awareness of sexual consent, from 80.2% to 81.8%

• Decreased experience of sexual assault, from 59.3% to 36.4%