Africa Will Be Among The Fastest Growing Regions In The Global Healthcare Market

Africa was the smallest region in the healthcare market in 2018, accounting for $145.7 billion or 1.72% of the total market share. This can be attributed to the poor healthcare infrastructure, low investments in healthcare, and low healthcare expenditure in the region. Despite slow growth in the historic period between 2018 to 2018, it is expected to be the second fastest growing market for healthcare by 2022, growing at an annual rate of nearly 13%, which is almost the same as Asia Pacific, the fastest growing market for healthcare. Africa’s rapid growth can be attributed to the growing populations, growing economy, increasing government initiatives to address drawbacks in the public health system, and increasing prevalence of communicable diseases such as HIV-AIDS in the region.

The global healthcare market is segmented into healthcare services, pharmaceutical drugs, biologics, medical equipment, and veterinary healthcare. In Africa, the healthcare services market was the largest segment in 2018, accounting for $111.1 billion or 76.25% of the market. The market size can be attributed to the large geriatric population, and increasing awareness among the people. Increased number of surgical procedures coupled with favorable government initiatives such as Egypt’s ‘Transforming Egypt`s Healthcare System Project’, and ‘The National Health Promotion Policy and Strategy 2015-2019’ also contributed to the healthcare services market size.

In 2018, the ‘Transforming Egypt`s Healthcare System Project’ worth $530 million was launched with an aim of improving services at 600 primary healthcare facilities and 27 hospitals, supporting Egypt’s family planning efforts through a $35 million intervention, scaling up the community health workers program to promote better health and nutrition, screening 1 million units of blood annually, and expanding the screening of Hepatitis C for around 35 million people and treatment of an estimated 1.5 million patients. The project will also screen 20 million adult Egyptians against non-communicable diseases and risk factors.

‘The National Health Promotion Policy and Strategy 2015-2019’ is an initiative by the South African Government aimed at achieving long and healthy lives for all South Africans. It identifies key target audiences across the lifecycle for health promotion interventions namely: children under 5 years, women of child bearing age, men, older people, and marginalized populations.

The African region is divided into a large number of countries with varying healthcare systems and differing levels of public versus private provisions. Urbanization levels and disposable income are increasing across the region, thus increasing public access to healthcare.