fets, PharmAccess support disadvantaged communities through Mobile Health

Funds & Electronic Transfer Solutions Limited, a leading Central Bank of Nigeria licensed mobile money operator in Nigeria, and Communic8Health, a health market consumer research organization, in collaboration with PharmAccess Mobile Health Research Lab in Nigeria have successfully completed a study on digital payment for healthcare using the fets mobile money wallet platform, fetswallet.
The main objective was to study how mobile phones and mobile payment technologies can be used to improve access to affordable and quality healthcare services to individuals and communities otherwise constrained.
The study was designed to introduce low income households to mobile payment as an alternative to cash payments for health services; assess its usability and acceptability; observe any change in healthcare utilization in the participating health facilities; and the target participants’ health-seeking behaviour and eventually migrate the households to a mobile savings experiment to cater for their health expenses.
The observation study was carried out on four health facilities and 50 low income households in Makoko, a peri-urban community in Lagos, primarily targeting women with under-five children, classified as principals for the mHealth experiment, who owned a mobile phone.
Njide Ndili, the Country Director of PharmAccess Nigeria, underscored the importance of mobile communications technology as having the potential to bring healthcare within the reach of people who so far have remained largely off the radar, thereby catalyzing the move towards a truly inclusive health system in Nigeria.
Ndili said: “The PharmAccess Mobile Health Research Lab in Nigeria – in partnership with fets – is providing that space where innovation in mobile health meets research, and we are glad to collaborate with fets towards creating sustainable health market innovations in Nigeria.”
Omotade Odunowo, MD of fets, said: “We’re delighted to partner with PharmAccess in this innovative initiative. We’re determined to spread the ‘gospel’ of electronic money transfer via fets to every nook and cranny in the country. The results of the research will form viable data to inspire more of our service and product offerings to reach more Nigerians, especially disadvantaged individuals and communities who will benefit from our services.”
Prior to the commencement of the test, a programme orientation workshop was conducted for the principals on how to use their activated mobile money wallet to pay for health purchases and the protocol for access to care.
As an added incentive, N2,000 was subsidized to each household’s fetswallet to encourage participation in the programme and the observation study, while the health facilities were not incentivized beyond the attraction of dedicated clients during the test period
In terms of educational background and awareness, over 75 per cent of the women recruited had completed secondary school education and only a few of the participating households had heard of “mobile money”, and field agents recruited from the community had to explain its difference to the mobile call credit repeatedly.
From the health facilities perspective, after “ease of payment”, the convenience of using the fets mobile payment platform was actually the most touted advantage and it was the main reason for recommendation to others.
From the households’ perspective, over 82 per cent stopped carrying cash to the hospital due to the fact that they trusted their fetswallet to work.
At the end of the six months, almost all (98 per cent) of the households indicated fetswallet had positively influenced the way they manage healthcare expenses.
Likewise, over 54 per cent of the participating households indicated that they would like to save their own personal funds using the fets mobile money platform when asked.
As a result of the ease and convenience from using their fetswallet accounts, healthcare utilization increased in 58 per cent of households as compared to the preceding half-year, 26 per cent of them had lower utilization rates and 16 per cent did not change their healthcare utilization pattern.
Overall, the study demonstrated that the use of the USSD mobile money platform with short code *610# is fairly easy to learn and generally acceptable if payment instruction is simplified for a product offering.
Most participants adapted fast in learning how to use fetswallet mobile payment platform, and while a number of participants could check their balances when they wanted to.