Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa will be the first countries in Africa to benefit from the third quarter of the Pan-African M-health initiative beginning early next year.
The programme is targeted at reducing the maternal death rates using mobile phones. Credible national and global health authorities would confirm and recommend the health content to be delivered in a coordinated manner through mobile phones to mobile phone subscribers.
The leading multinational technology service provider Etisalat will partner with GSMA, a consortium of global mobile network operators, to boost the Pan-African m-health Initiative project.
Etisalat Group chief executive officer Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar said the programme aims to reduce child mortality rate by improving maternal health, which is also part of Millennium Development Goals.
Julfar further noted, “We have already initiated projects in Africa targeting to solve the issue of mortality rate.We are grateful to partner with other firms with the same idea to our peers to have a positive impact to women, children and their families across the continent.”
Reports from Etisalat Group say the broad objective would be to share innovation and best practice for the betterment of humanity throughout Africa.
Julfar noted that the standardised m-health initiative allows content to reach out to several nations thus positively changing the lives of more families.
Earlier on, the pilot programme reached out to thousands of families in just seven months. The company hopes a wider programme would in turn roll out to a wider population leading to healthy life.
For Etisalat’s m-health initiative, the average cost per delivery is U$22.26, which is safe while through home delivery, one will have to part away with $6.25 per birth, and in-facility deliveries carry an average cost of only U$29.87.
According to the latest reports on Mobile phone’s subscribers in the three nations, close to 102 million phone users from Nigeria, South Africa 60 million and 29 from Kenya million.
The platform would be appropriate to Etisalat in reaching out to people in the regions as reported by Etisalat.
