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Thought Leadership

Arguments about African health, made in the first person

Essays and perspectives from the people building health systems on this continent. Founders, pharmacists and clinicians writing about what they have learned, what they got wrong, and what they think has to change. Not reporting. Positions, with names attached.

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Signed opinion · Views are the author's own · Published by HealthCoach Africa

600 million

Africans lack access to the healthcare they need. The number that started HubCare, and the one every argument in this section eventually returns to.

14,400

People reached through HubCare's platform in its first year. Small next to the problem, and the honest starting point of any real attempt at it.

₦1,000

The monthly subscription HubCare launched at, roughly two dollars. Affordability is not a feature of access, it is the whole of it.

Start here

The essays that set out what this platform is for.

Why I co-founded HubCare Health
Founder essay

Why I Co-founded HubCare Health to Democratize Healthcare for All Africans

In 2015 a friend and his wife died of tuberculosis, a curable disease, because they could not reach the information or the care that would have saved them. That is the argument for everything that followed: an AI-assisted platform putting board-certified clinicians within reach of people who otherwise have none, starting at about two dollars a month.

By Sesan Kareem · Co-founder, HubCare Health · December 21, 2021

More perspectives

HubCare at one year
Building in public
HubCare at 1: A Year of Learning and Impact
December 15, 2022
On prescription drug misuse
Sesan Kareem
The Danger Inherent in Abusing Prescription Drugs
February 13, 2022
Strengthening African health infrastructure
Health systems
Strategies to Strengthen Africa's Public Health Infrastructure
August 2, 2023
Healthy FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022
Sport and health
Healthy FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: A Legacy of Sport for All
November 20, 2022
View all essays →

Voices from practice

Pharmacists and clinicians writing about their own field.

The role of pharmacists in Nigeria
Pharmacy

The Role of Pharmacists in Strengthening Nigeria's Health System

From compounding to clinical practice, and why accessibility is the profession's most underrated asset.

Ogundeji Jide Jacobs
Technology in pharmacy practice
Digital practice

Embracing Technology in Pharmacy Practice

Where licensed pharmacists are scarce, unqualified practitioners fill the gap. Digital consultation is how you displace them.

Dr. Obaseki
Prescription drug misuse
Medicine safety

All Drugs Can Become Poison If Not Used Correctly

Buying medicine is a clinical decision, not a retail transaction. An argument against Nigeria's self-medication default.

Sesan Kareem
Health infrastructure in Africa
Policy

Four Things Africa Must Build

Manufacturing hubs, primary care, diagnostic networks and specialist centres. A concrete infrastructure agenda.

HealthCoach Africa

What we argue for

Six positions that run through the writing in this section. We publish people who disagree with us, but these are the starting points.

Access is a design problem

People do not die of tuberculosis because the cure does not exist. They die because the cure and the information about it did not reach them. That is a distribution failure, and distribution failures are solvable.

Affordability is not a feature

A service priced beyond the people who need it has not solved access, it has relocated it. Price is the first design constraint, not the last.

Pharmacists are underused

They are the most accessible health professional in most African communities and the least integrated into formal care pathways. That is a policy choice, and a reversible one.

Build for the infrastructure that exists

Solutions that assume reliable power, broadband and smartphones are solutions for somewhere else. WhatsApp reaches people that an app store does not.

Manufacture locally or stay exposed

Importing 70 to 90 percent of medicines means every currency movement becomes a health crisis. Local production is health security, not industrial policy.

Report the numbers honestly

Fourteen thousand people in a year, against six hundred million who need help, is a real number and a small one. Impact claims that do not admit scale are not worth making.

Open call

Write for HealthCoach Africa

This section exists for practitioners with something to argue, not for press releases. If you are a clinician, pharmacist, founder, researcher or policymaker working in African health and you have a position you can defend, we want to publish it. We edit for clarity, we do not soften the argument, and the byline is yours.

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Articles in this section are signed opinion. Views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily represent the position of HealthCoach Africa, HubPharm Africa or the HubCare Global group. Several contributors, including Sesan Kareem, hold executive positions within the group, and pieces referencing HubCare or HubPharm should be read with that interest in mind. Nothing here is medical advice, and readers with health concerns should consult a qualified doctor or pharmacist. Nothing here is investment advice.