{"id":38846,"date":"2019-02-09T19:21:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-09T19:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kagame-urges-african-nations-companies-to-invest\/"},"modified":"2019-02-10T17:55:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T17:55:26","slug":"kagame-urges-african-nations-companies-to-invest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kagame-urges-african-nations-companies-to-invest\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagame urges African nations, companies to invest more in healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kagame who doubles as the Chairperson of the African Union made the remarks as he chaired the African Leadership Meeting on Investing in Health held in Addis Ababa ahead the 32nd African Union Summit.<\/p>\n

The meeting has brought together African Heads of State and Government, business leaders and global health organisations to launch a new initiative designed to help deliver increased, sustained and more impactful financing for health across Africa.<\/p>\n

In his remarks, Kagame said, \u201cInvesting in the health of our citizens has already had transformative effects on the people of our continent. But there is much more to do. We will get better results if we work together as a continent.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have a lot to learn from each other\u2019s experiences implementing programmes such as universal health insurance, and community-based healthcare,\u201d Kagame said.<\/p>\n

According to the 2018 WHO Global Health Expenditure Database, only two out of the 55 AU Member States meet Africa\u2019s target of dedicating at least 15% of the government budget to health and do not reach the suggested threshold of US$86.30 per person required to provide a basic package of health services.<\/p>\n

Here, Kagame called on the governments to increase domestic investment in healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments should surely be willing and able to increase domestic investment in healthcare. A good indicator of this is the progress we have made toward securing the financial health of the African Union and mobilising our own resources for joint priorities, such as the Peace Fund. We should be the first ones to contribute to efforts that directly benefit our people,\u201d Kagame said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are entering a period where most of the special health financing vehicles must replenish their resources. This creates the necessity\u2014or rather the opportunity\u2014 for Africa to increase its ownership of the process. Together we can set an even more ambitious agenda for the next phase,” he emphasized.<\/p>\n

Kagame also called on private companies to invest more in the business of healthcare in Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe private sector is the key to success. The role goes beyond taxes and philanthropy as central as those are. We also need to see the private sector investing more in the business of healthcare in Africa as service providers,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Kagame also noted that companies can also ensure their employees have high-quality, private health insurance coverage and this creates more demand in the market, and allows governments to focus on the most vulnerable. <\/p>\n

\"President<\/figure>\n
\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Paul Kagame has said governments\u2019 investment in health has transformed African people\u2019s lives but a lot more needs to be done, asking for the private sector to invest more in the healthcare business in Africa as service providers as there is demand in the market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[69],"byline":[180],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-38846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-homehighlights","byline-samson-iradukunda"],"bylines":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":24}],"contributors":[{"id":180,"name":"Samson Iradukunda","slug":"samson-iradukunda","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":24}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38846"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=38846"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=38846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}