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African Governments Collaborate Tech Innovators to Strengthen Local Health Supply Chains – Report
Healthcare consulting firm Salient Advisory has launched its latest annual market intelligence report highlighting a robust pan-African ecosystem of innovators improving the safety and efficiency of health supply chains across the continent.
Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the report titled “Innovations in Digitizing Health Supply Chains in Africa” is the first pan-African landscape of health supply chain innovators on the continent. It tracks nearly 350 technology-enabled innovators digitizing supply chain processes across 27 African countries.
As a wave of supply chain innovations emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-term viability and impact of their business models was unclear. While the pace of new entry has slowed drastically, findings show African governments working with health supply chain innovators on nearly 50 partnerships, leveraging their tech-enabled solutions to resolve long-term challenges around the availability, accessibility, and quality of health products in public health supply chains.
Nearly half of the identified partnerships focus on enabling governments to digitize ordering and inventory management to improve efficiency and minimize wastage, highlighting governments’ strong interest in adopting digital order and inventory management solutions.
While most innovators working in partnership with governments are more mature, like Zipline and mPharma, several younger companies have also established public sector partnerships early on, including Nigeria’s Figorr and Zimbabwe’s Vaxiglobal.
As Africa’s tech scene grows, governments’ interest in supporting innovations that deliver social impact – while creating jobs – appears to be developing. The growing emergence of these partnerships also bodes well for the development of innovation-friendly regulations by governments across the continent.
Disparities in funding trends remain apparent across the health supply chain innovation ecosystem.
While innovators have raised $2.6 billion in funding since their founding, US and Europe-based e-commerce companies and medical drone delivery operators account for 77% of all funding raised; the remaining innovators have raised $584 million since their launch.
While government interest in innovations in ordering and inventory management appears strong and presents a potential path to scale, startups in this category have raised only 9% of all funding since their founding.
In terms of the number of deals, Plug N Play Ventures and Launch Africa stand out as the most active sources of equity funding in this space, while the Investing in Innovation program, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google’s Black Founders Fund have provided the highest number of grants.
The 29 women-led companies active across the African continent (with a large concentration in Nigeria and Kenya) still suffer from poor access to equity financing, resulting in heavy reliance on debt and grants.
Innovators headquartered outside the continent have also raised 83% of total funding ever reported, with large e-commerce giants and medical drone delivery operators capturing the bulk of external investment.
Similarly, gender financing gaps are also evident as companies founded solely by women make up 8% of all startups but have received only 2% of all reported funds overall time. Lack of access to equity financing results in women-led companies relying more heavily on debt and grants.
As the ecosystem matures, innovators will provide supply chain solutions at a greater scale to governments, industry, global health agencies and more.
The report advocates for the design and launch of trade financing and insurance solutions to enable mature innovators to distribute larger volumes of health products for institutional customers, an adjustment of purchasing processes by global health agencies to facilitate the participation of innovators in donor-funded supply chains, and the continued deployment of grants to foster inclusive and effective innovation ecosystems.
Speaking on the launch of the report, Remi Adeseun, Director at Salient Advisory, commented: “The report offers the first comprehensive overview of tech-enabled health supply chain innovators emerging across Africa. We are surprised – and thrilled – to see so many government partnerships with innovators underway at both national and sub-national levels.
“We urge global health donors, agencies and industry partners to join with governments and investors in supporting high-potential innovators, helping foster more efficient and resilient healthcare supply chains while creating jobs.”
Hany Abdallah, Senior Program Officer, Supply Chain Systems at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also commented:
“African health innovators have demonstrated an impressive ability to utilize technology for the optimization of supply chain solutions and the improvement of access to medicines. We are delighted to witness this progress, particularly as it coincides with an increase in government partnerships, which will advance positive health outcomes.
“This trend highlights the trust and collaboration between governments and health tech innovators, as well as a shared commitment to driving positive change and fostering innovation within the healthcare sector across the continent.”
Jules Sergine Agbeci, Director of Operations at Office Pharmaceutique National, Gabon, said: “Leveraging tech-enabled solutions to digitize national supply chains across the country has had a transformative effect on the efficiency and product visibility across our local supply chains.
“As innovators develop more technology-driven models, there will be opportunities for more government agencies across the continent to test these solutions and offer clarity on their supply chain needs to enable public health systems to leapfrog long-running challenges.”
Glovo, a multi-category tech company, has announced its integration into the generative AI ecosystem with the launch of its “Shopping Assistant” for ChatGPT and Claude. Users can now discover retail products, compare prices, and seamlessly order any item using natural conversational language with the AI systems.
The Glovo experience inside such platforms introduces a conversational commerce model that shifts from a search-based web to an intent-based web. Rather than navigating traditional app menus and filters, users can express needs, such as asking for a “last-minute gift for a coffee lover under ₦50,000”, and the assistant handles semantic search, location validation, and product curation.
A Seamless, Concierge-Like Experience
Once both platforms have been connected through either ChatGPT or Claude apps, the user will be able to have a multi-turn dialogue where the assistant remembers context and constraints, such as budget caps. Users receive a visual carousel of up to five highly customised product options available at local stores. Each product displays its image, name, store details and ratings, and price. While the search and discovery experience takes place directly on the Generative AI platforms, selecting a product via the “view on Glovo” button takes the user to the Glovo mobile or web app, where the payment and final purchase are exclusively completed.
Strategic Focus on Retail and Growth
Glovo is prioritising the retail and grocery sectors for this initial launch, capturing the established habit of using AI for product research. Generative AI has driven a significant jump in retail traffic globally, so this first-mover advantage aims to meet customers where they are meeting Gen AI daily, and ensure it captures high-intent organic traffic as search behaviours evolve.
“We’re always looking for ways to meet our customers where they already are. Being available on Claude and ChatGPT means people can discover what Glovo has to offer as part of a natural conversation, with no friction. Glovo has always been about being the everyday app that provides choice and convenience, and this is another step in that direction”, said Shiro Theuri, Chief Technology Officer at Glovo.
How to look for products in the Glovo app through ChatGPT or Claude
- The user must sync ChatGPT or Claude with the Glovo app with the plug-in.
- Once synced, the user must type in @glovo followed by their request.
- The AI platform displays a carousel with 5 available options for the user.
- If the user wants to purchase any of the products or continue searching within the Glovo app, they must click “View on Glovo”, which will redirect the user to the Glovo app or website.
- After the order is confirmed, the store will prepare the item(s) and the courier will head up to the pick-up location. The user will receive the order in minutes.
Southeast Asia cybercrime networks are expanding operations into Africa as crackdowns intensify in the subregion, according to a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The massive, unintended geographic shift triggered by intense pressure from international task forces in Myanmar and Cambodia,have seen highly sophisticated criminal networks now establishing footholds in major tech hubs across Kenya and Nigeria, transforming local technical talent into accomplices for industrial-scale digital theft as reported by https://streamlinefeed.co.ke/
This strategic migration represents a critical evolution in the $17 billion crypto scam economy.
Transnational scam syndicates are organized criminal networks that run industrial-scale online fraud using trapped or trafficked labor.
The UNODC has documented this diversification, noting that African nations are increasingly targeted as operational bases due to robust internet infrastructure and a surplus of unemployed tech workers.
In response, local authorities are engaged in a frantic game of catch-up against well-funded foreign cartels.
Recall that in 2025, UNODC, described the shift as part of a broader trend in which crime “spreads like a cancer,” into regions with weaker enforcement and limited digital safeguards.
The report pointed to the rapid proliferation of online fraud operations, including cryptocurrency scams and phishing schemes, moving from countries like Myanmar and Cambodia into new footholds in Africa—particularly Nigeria.
A recent case publicized June 12, 2025 by the WeChat public account West Africa Chinese Voice illustrates the trend: Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested 177 Chinese nationals in Lagos and Abuja between December 2024 and January 2025.
The suspects were allegedly running scam centers under the guise of corporate offices, where local Nigerians were trained to carry out online investment frauds—many following the “pig-butchering” model, which builds trust with victims before luring them into fraudulent crypto investments.
Authorities seized hundreds of SIM cards, high-performance computers, and prewritten scam scripts during the raids
Ugochukwu Eze, a 47 year-old man, was on Thursday arraigned before a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly hacking into the server of SunTrust Bank to steal a total of N800m.
Ugochukwu also known as Amazon, was arraigned before the court by the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS).
DSS accused Ugochukwu of fraudulently hacking into the server of SunTrust Bank to remove and divert the sum of N800 million into several accounts in other financial institutions.
M. Bajela,prosecuting counsel, DSS, in the charges filed before the court alleged that the defendant and others now at large, between 2023 and 2026, conspired among themselves and unlawfully and seriously hindered the function of Suntrust Bank Plc’s computer system server and in the process fraudulently diverted over N800 million belonging to the bank.
Ugochukwu was also accused of concealing and transferring various sums of money traced to the unlawful cyber-attacks to some account in some financial institutions.
The offences alleged to have been committed by the defendant according to the prosecutor contravened sections 5; 6(1) and 8 of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2024. And Sections 10, 20 and 18(2)(D) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
Based on his plea of not guilty, the prosecutor asked the court for a trial date, and prayed the court to remand the defendant in the facility of the correctional services pending the time trial will commence.
However, E. Afrogha, defendant’s lawyer, told the court that she has filed her client’s bail application. adding that her client has been in the DSS custody for over a month.
But the prosecution counsel told the court that he has not been served with the bail application, not withstanding that his witnesses are available.
Based on the counsels’ submissions, Justice Friday Ogazi, presiding judge, adjourned the matter to August 24,2026 for hearing of the bail application.
The judge also ordered that the defendant be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS) pending the hearing of the bail application.
One of the counts against the defendant reads: “That you UGOCHUKWU EZE (AKA AMAZON) (M) (47 YEARS) sometime between 2023 and 2026 in Lagos, and other places within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, unlawfully seriously hindered the function of SunTrust Bank Plc’s computer system, and in the process fraudulently diverted over N800, 000,000.00 (Eight Hundred Million Naira) belonging to the said SunTrust Bank thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 8 of the cybercrime (prohibition, prevention etc.) Act, 2024.”
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