Unlocking Africa
Terser Adamu, who is an Africa Business Strategist, International Trade Adviser, and Director at ETK Group, hosts the award-nominated Unlocking Africa Podcast. During each episode he shares his thoughts on how to unlock Africa’s economic potential in the 21st century. This is delivered through engaging and thought-provoking discussions with innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and business leaders who are unlocking Africa’s economic potential. Whether you're a business leader, an aspiring entrepreneur, have a comfortable side hustle, or want to take your business to the next level, each episode is jam-packed with information and insight that will enable you to take immediate action and implement key strategies to successfully launch and grow your business in Africa.
Unlocking Africa
From Ethiopia to Africa: Building a Digital Healthcare Platform for over 500,000 Patients with Beamlak Alemayehu
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Episode 240 with Beamlak Alemayehu, Founder and CEO of Medanit Digital Health, Ethiopia’s first integrated, multi channel digital healthcare access system connecting patients with doctors, medication and mental health services through a mobile application, website and low bandwidth call centre.
Beamlak is a clinical nurse and social worker whose experience of long waiting times, misinformation, medicine shortages and fragmented healthcare services inspired her to build a more accessible and patient centred alternative. Medanit has registered more than 50,000 users across Ethiopia, delivered over 58,000 medications and facilitated more than 78,000 consultations and healthcare support interactions. Beamlak is also one of the 2026 recipients of the Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award, which supports women led businesses developing solutions in health and food security.
In this episode, Beamlak shares her journey from working directly with patients to building one of Ethiopia’s emerging digital healthcare companies. Drawing on her clinical experience and the lessons learned from growing Medanit, she explores what it takes to use technology to redesign the patient journey and build a healthcare business within a complex and underserved market.
What We Discuss With Beamlak
- Why building more hospitals and training more doctors may not solve Africa’s healthcare access crisis if patients still cannot navigate fragmented services.
- Can digital healthcare remain affordable for low income patients while generating enough revenue to build a commercially sustainable company?
- Could patient data help Africa predict demand, reduce medicine shortages and strengthen pharmaceutical supply chains?
- What does it take to earn trust, protect patient data and maintain clinical quality while delivering healthcare through technology?
- Can Medanit transform a locally adapted Ethiopian platform into a scalable African business serving 500,000 people?
Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Millions of Streams, Little Ownership: Is Nigeria Building a Music Industry or Just Exporting Talent? Make sure to check it out!
Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:
