The Nextier October 2, 2025 3:40 pm

In this episode, we’re joined by Ije Ikoku Okeke, Managing Director for Catalytic Climate Capital at Rocky Mountain Institute. With deep experience across finance, power distribution, and investment advisory, Ije explains how money, policy, and partnerships intersect. We explore how to move beyond pilots, design financing that works for Africa, and ensure that the transition isn’t just green, but also inclusive and equitable.

The Nextier September 22, 2025 3:46 pm

JemChang Fabong convened Dr Ifunaya Ilobube, CEO of EHA Clinics, to discuss scaling primary healthcare for vulnerable Nigerians. The conversation explored practical solutions for reaching rural and peri-urban populations toward achieving universal health coverage through community-driven, technology-enabled approaches.

Dr Ilobube reframed healthcare as a "trust business," where community confidence determines success more than infrastructure quality. Despite Nigeria contributing 28% of global maternal deaths, communities often choose traditional providers over modern facilities due to trust deficits. She emphasised that Nigerians consistently pay for healthcare, but only to providers they trust, regardless of formal qualifications.

The discussion identified six critical barriers to primary healthcare expansion: infrastructure gaps and workforce shortages, regulatory fragmentation across states, financial accessibility challenges for households below the poverty line, programme fragmentation from international donors operating in silos, emergency care system gaps, and logistical constraints, including unreliable power and poor road infrastructure.

EHA Clinics addresses these challenges through strategic partnerships with existing trusted providers rather than competing with them. Their technology solutions include empowering local medicine vendors with AI-guided workflows, utilising phone and WhatsApp consultations over video calls, implementing Electronic Medical Records for disease pattern prediction, and using community clinics as anchor points for multiple health programs.

Dr Ilobube advocated repositioning primary care as the foundation of healthcare delivery, arguing that well-trained family physicians can meet most patient needs. She stressed that prevention costs significantly less than cure, yet current insurance designs favour acute care over preventative interventions. Her "True North" framework of zero harm, zero wait, and zero waste prioritises improving care quality and promoting health equity over rapid scaling that compromises service standards.

The discussion concluded that achieving universal health coverage requires systematic investment in primary care infrastructure, workforce development, technology integration, and community partnership models that recognise healthcare as a trust-based relationship between providers and communities.