Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues and friends,
Good morning, it’s an honour to be here at the Tony Elumelu Foundation Forum.
Today I woke up to the sad news of the shipwreck in the Mediterranean and the loss of 150 lives, Africans from our continent, all of them.
This year alone - we’re just seven months into the year - more than 600 people have died. You know about the reasons.
It actually gives me hope that this kind of intervention to support startups will address the root cause of the problem, because one of the root causes of the problem is finding opportunities – that is why people are migrating and losing their lives like what happened yesterday.
That is a sub-story, but if we can do in large scale something like this, like what TEF is doing, I think we can address the root causes of the problem, we can keep our youth here in their continent and change this continent, not just people who leave that make this continent a destination where others can come.
When I met Tony earlier this year and he invited me to come to speak at the forum, I accepted immediately.
The work the foundation does is nothing short of incredible.
The best investments are in human capital, especially young people, and that’s exactly what the foundation does.
At the same time when the rest of the world is grappling with the challenges of ageing populations, Africa has the world’s youngest population.
The 10 countries with the youngest populations are all in this continent.
And by 2055, the number of people in Africa aged between 15 and 24 will be double.
This is an incredible opportunity, and a significant challenge too.
With the right investments, Africa’s young people will be the engine of an incredible transformation for this continent.
But if we miss the opportunity, we will exacerbate the problems of poverty and inequality that hold Africa back today.
I believe that the best investment in our young people, and in the future of Africa, is health.
Health is the foundation for the dynamic and prosperous Africa we all want to see.
Health enables people to learn and earn, to start businesses and to thrive.
Health creates jobs. It drives productivity. It stimulates inclusive growth. And it protects economies from the impacts of outbreaks and other emergencies.
And yet today, access to quality essential health services is lower in Africa than any other region.
Today, 114 million people in Africa live in poverty because of health care costs.
These gaps not only imperil the health of millions of people; they also imperil Africa’s growth and prosperity.
It’s an outrage that any family has to choose between buying medicine and buying food; between poverty and illness.
And that’s why WHO’s top priority is universal health coverage.
Ultimately, universal health coverage is not just a moral imperative; it’s an economic imperative.
===
There is no getting away from the fact that domestic public financing is the bedrock of universal health coverage. No country has ever achieved UHC by relying mainly on voluntary, private funding.
But I have always said that we cannot achieve universal health coverage or the Sustainable Development Goals without the private sector.
More than half of health services in Africa are already delivered by private providers.
The private sector is also an incubator of innovation.
One of the main recommendations of the WHO Africa Health Forum in Cabo Verde earlier this year was that to meet the challenge and opportunity of universal health coverage in Africa, we will need new ideas, new products, new ways of delivering services and new ways of financing health.
But too often, great ideas don’t have the impact they deserve because they lack scale and sustainability.
That’s why the Tony Elumelu Foundation is so important. The seed capital it provides is a vital investment in getting new ideas off the ground.
Innovation is also a priority for WHO. Earlier this year we established the WHO Innovation Hub, to identify innovations with the potential to improve the health of millions, but which face bottlenecks in being taken to scale.
===
Excellencies, my brothers and sisters,
I believe there are three key challenges for Africa on the road to universal health coverage. These are my asks for African leaders:
First, harness the power of health for economic growth. Countries that invest in building resilient health systems, based on strong primary health care, make an investment that will pay a rich dividend for decades to come.
Second, harness the power of innovation. Africa’s young and dynamic population is fertile ground for new ideas that can change the face of this continent. We must invest in those ideas.
Third, harness the power of public-private partnerships. With strong national leadership and robust regulation, the private sector can and must play a vital role in delivering quality health services and products.
Ultimately, investing in health is exactly that – an investment in the healthier, safer, and more prosperous Africa we all want.
I thank you.