The platform isn’t limited to maternal care. Centers like Imara take M-TIBA payment for any of their services and, according to Inoti, this has impacted the care people now have access to. 600 people signed up to M-TIBA via the center last year and 80 percent of those have since accessed a service, said Inoti.

The data gathered through M-TIBA also allows for more insights into the patient journey, which in turn allow providers to improve the care they’re providing. “You’re able to see who came, why they came, when they came, what they were treated for, and what they were billed for. This translates to quality of care around the antenatal and delivery continuum,” said Muigai, speaking of the mother journey and MomCare. This translates to improved quality of care, she added, given that the provider can then create a more intimate connection with patients and encourage them to come back into the health system, equaling more optimum outcomes for health issues.

Faith Muigai, regional director of SafeCare talks about maternal care in Kenya.

Often an individual uses M-TIBA in conjunction with the national hospital insurance fund by paying the deductibles with the account, and so the platform is now working to encourage users to purchase health insurance with the money they’ve put aside. It’s more sustainable than purchasing services as and when needed, said Kuria. “If I can save money to buy insurance, it gives me even better benefits than just saving. That’s the thinking.”

Looking ahead, Kuria said that given each player is the same in every country — provider, payer, and patient — M-TIBA can be scaled up beyond Africa.

And the way in which to scale is through partnerships with the right people, said Muigai. “There are opportunities to accelerate through public-private partnerships where you see organizations such as PharmaAccess working within the public and private sector to improve care and share those innovations so that we’re touching more women and more families in our communities.”