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REVIEW article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Technology Implementation
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1391500
This article is part of the Research Topic Socioeconomic Inequalities in Digital Health View all 5 articles
Role of Digital Health Technologies in Improving Health Financing and Universal Health Coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comprehensive Narrative Review
Provisionally accepted
olutola vivian awosiku 1*
Ibrahim Nafisa Gbemisola 2*
Oluwafiponmile Thomas Oyediran 3
Oluwaseyi Muyiwa Egbewande 4
Jibril Habibah Lami 5
Daniel Afolabi 6
Melody Okereke 4
Fortune Effiong 7*- 1 University College Hospital Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
- 2 Faculty of Clinical sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
- 3 Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo, Nigeria
- 4 Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
- 5 Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Abuja, Nigeria
- 6 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria
- 7 University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria, Calabar, Nigeria
Digital technologies play a key role in developing a comprehensive and resilient healthcare delivery system in many low and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These technologies aim not only to address the financial accessibility gap for health needs but also to enhance innovation, partnerships, data management, and performance across healthcare stakeholders. This paper explores existing data on health challenges, financing, and universal health coverage in sub-Saharan Africa, along with an examination of digital health technologies, their adoption, and implementation. Case studies from initiatives such as M-tiba in Kenya, Jamii in Tanzania, and L'UNION TECHNIQUE DE LA MUTUALITÉ MALIENNE in Mali are presented, along with recommendations for scale-up, policy enhancement, collaboration, support, and identification of research gaps and areas for further exploration.
Keywords: UHC (universal health coverage), Digital Health, Africa, finacing strategy, Health technologies
Received: 26 Feb 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 awosiku, Gbemisola, Oyediran, Egbewande, Lami, Afolabi, Okereke and Effiong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
olutola vivian awosiku, University College Hospital Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Ibrahim Nafisa Gbemisola, Faculty of Clinical sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
Fortune Effiong, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria, Calabar, Nigeria
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