DAWN Sept-Oct

Page 46

Pandemic-Health

Flying Doctors Raising $1 Billion to Meet Africa’s Rising Health Care Needs By Tope Alake FLYING DOCTORS HEALTHCARE INVESTMENT Company (http:// fdinvestmentcompany.com/) plans to set up a $1 billion fund to invest in health care and wellness across Africa. “We are raising in three tranches within four years,” Ola Brown, the company’s managing partner and co-founder, said in an interview. “The first $200 million by the end of first quarter next year, and then $300 million and $500 million.” Based in Nigeria, Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company already has a number of health care technology companies in its portfolio that are worth an estimated $200 million. The companies include MDaas Global, LifeStore Pharmacy and Helium Health and operate in diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and telemedicine. Brown, 34, founded the air ambulance service Flying Doctors 10 years ago and later set up the investment company to fund health care firms. Flying Doctors was in the thick of the battle against the spread of coronavirus, quickly setting up mobile testing centers with capacity to conduct 100 tests a day in eight of the country’s 36 states in response to both government and private requests.

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“We have been investing in Nigeria, we wanted to start investing across Africa and that’s the purpose of opening up to external investors and to now invest in more companies,” she said. Brown is still on the board of Flying Doctors, which offers ambulance services to clients in government, oil and gas, mining and construction. To cut the costs of its air ambulance services, the company formed a partnership with Nigerian airline, Arik Air, to build health care compartments in their planes to help cut evacuation costs, Brown said. The arrangement has reduced patient transfers within the country from about $20,000 to less that $2,000. Flying Doctors currently moves about 20 patients every month, she said. Only 30% of the company’s ambulance services are done within Nigeria, with a majority coming from other countries in the region such as Gabon, Central Africa Republic, Congo and Burkina Faso, Brown said. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-01/ nigeria-doctor-eyes-1-billion-health-fund-aftertackling-virus Image credit: bizwatchnigeria.ng, autojosh.com

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World Resource Vault

6min
pages 95-99

Events Around the African Continent and the

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pages 92-94

Senegalese Cuisine

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pages 90-91

Soccer Phenom African Diaspora Themed Podcasts - A Directory

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pages 88-89

Alphonso Davies: Canada’s Humble, Joyful

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pages 86-87

Trevor Noah is on the Cover of the 'Wall Street

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Journal' September Issue Chadwick Boseman was the Defi nition of a Hero

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Engineer This Startup lets Villagers Create Mini Power

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with N100m Grant The Race to Build Facial Recognition Tech for Africa is being led by this Award-winning

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Lagos Supports 23 Innovators and Tech Startups

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pages 78-79

Limitless Power From Graphene How Bitcoin Met the Real World in Africa

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pages 76-77

Complexities' Physicists Build Circuit That Generates Clean

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African Telecom Giant to Exit Iran Over

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page 73

Disney Partners with Nollywood to Bring

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pages 70-71

Businesses WPEC Titans Tank 2020 Top 5 Winners

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pages 68-69

10 Funding Options for Women-Owned

4min
pages 66-67

Automated Vertical Indoor Farming Set to Sprout

8min
pages 62-65

State in Barbados Next Year Black Church Leaders Demand Apology for Trump Campaign Ad

2min
pages 56-57

Ambassador to USA Queen Elizabeth Will No Longer Be Head of

1min
page 55

African Stock Exchange/Bourse

7min
pages 58-61

Zimbabwean Diplomat Appointed AU

4min
pages 53-54

President Akufo-Addo of Ghana Emerges as

2min
pages 50-51

New ECOWAS Chair Burundi Joins Congo Demanding Nearly $43

1min
page 52

Newly Posted Ambassador to the USA

1min
page 49

The 75th UN General Assembly

1min
page 48

Flying Doctors Raising $1 Billion to Meet

1min
page 46

Africare Commemorates its 50th Anniversary

11min
pages 38-43

Africa’s Rising Health Care Needs U.N. World Food Program Wins Nobel Peace Prize

3min
page 47

with Planned Sunset of all U.S. Operations and Assisting in Standing Up a New "PanAfricare" on the Continent Africa's Great Green Wall Just 4% Complete Halfway Through Schedule

4min
pages 44-45

Orleans, a Chef Reaches Across Restaurant Scene Black Rock Senegal

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page 36

To Give African Food a Bigger Stage in New

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pages 33-35

New Report on Aging in Africa

2min
page 37

Akon Just Unveiled his $6 Billion ‘Futuristic’ City in Senegal

5min
pages 30-32

Republic of Senegal

8min
pages 26-29

Style with a Purpose

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page 24

Beyoncé's Black Parade Route Catalog Giving African-owned Businesses a Boost

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pages 22-23

4 Expert Tips to Internationalize* Your New Business

13min
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Market for the Holidays

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Digital Trade is the Next Big Thing in Africa

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Africa is Open for Business, Based on a Single Rule-Book for Trade and Investment

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Publisher's Message

8min
pages 4-8
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