Jumia, an e-commerce company, is planning to launch an e-doctor service that will allow Nigerians to consult doctors remotely for $1 per month.
To accomplish this, the company is collaborating with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organisations focused on financial inclusion to improve the lives of lower-income populations, through its fintech arm, JumiaPay.
To deliver this service, JumiaPay is also collaborating with a service provider, a Meeting Doctor. Nigerians, according to the company, will be able to use this service through the JumiaPay app.
This service will rely on Nigeria’s high rate of mobile internet penetration. As of April, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reported 148 million Internet subscriptions in the country.
Disclosing this in its Q1 2022 financial results presentation, Jumia said: “The objective of this service is to help workers, sellers, and consumers in general access doctors remotely for a monthly subscription fee of around $1.”
“The experiment will help validate the value delivered to our customers and workers and identify a sustainable model to achieve this,” it added.
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The initiative is in line with the country’s new government’s policy on healthcare for the poor and vulnerable.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed the National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2022 into law last month. The law is expected to cover approximately 83 million poor Nigerians who are unable to pay their health insurance premiums.
According to the Nigerian government, a Vulnerable Group Fund will be established to include a component of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund as a result of the authority, the Health Insurance levy, the Special Intervention Fund, and any investment proceeds, donations, and gifts to authorities.
