How Nigerian health start-up won $100,000

Owobu Emmanuel Osayi, a Nigerian doctor who co-founded MOBicure, recently won $100,000 to attend World Expo in 2020.
MOBicure was founded to bring healthcare to the doorsteps of Nigerians using mobile technology.
Its flagship product is called OMOMI, which is a mobile platform for pregnant women and mothers of under-5s, which enables them to monitor their children’s health and have access to specific and life-saving maternal and child health information, as well as medical expertise at the touch of a button.
OMOMI helps to save the lives of mothers and children in rural communities and assists those who cannot afford to attend hospitals. Since it was launched in Benin City in 2015, over 30,000 parents have benefitted from the platform.
Through Omomi, parents can track their children’s immunisation status, monitor their growth, manage diseases through a do-it-yourself platform.
According to Osayi, Omomi, which means ‘my child’, was inspired by he saw a baby die carelessly.
“A young mother came into the emergency room crying and holding a baby when I was a doctor. Looking at the baby, I knew he was severely dehydrated, and looking into his history, I saw he had been suffering from diarrhoea for some time, so I asked the mother why she took so long to bring him into the hospital. We tried to revive the baby and give him fluids, but we lost him. The mother, crying, picked up her phone and called her family members. I asked her why she hadn’t used her phone to get information or help online, and she said she didn’t know how; she didn’t have a platform to help her do that. A few months later a friend called and told me about a very similar situation. We talked and decided we needed to find a solution,” he said.
Yousuf Caires, vice president at Expo Live, said: “The OMOMI app was born out of a tragic situation, and its co-founders are dedicating themselves to helping prevent more such tragedies. By creating this simple solution, they are helping thousands of parents to ensure their children grow up into healthy adults. We see innovation not as the process of generating ideas, but as the relentless commitment to solving a problem worth solving. It is the global innovators’ character, their drive and their reasons for choosing this path – the path of a change-maker – that earns them a place in our Expo Live family and the opportunity to inspire millions at Expo 2020 Dubai.”

ODINAKA ANUDU