One founder’s plan to make childbirth less financially dangerous

In 2025, two stories of pregnant women devastated by unaffordable healthcare spread rapidly across Nigerian social media.

The first involved a woman who developed pregnancy complications and was rushed to a private hospital by her husband. The hospital was said to have demanded an upfront payment of ₦500,000 ($368) before treatment could begin. Unable to raise the money, the couple left in search of a government hospital. She died in the car before they arrived.

The incident sparked widespread outrage, with many Nigerians questioning why a woman in critical condition could be denied life-saving care because she could not pay.

The second case was no less devastating. A woman said to be pregnant with twins developed complications and urgently needed ₦28,000 ($20.62) for treatment. She did not have it. By the time financial help arrived, both babies had died in the womb. Doctors later delivered the stillborn twins in an effort to save her life and prevent maternal sepsis.

These were not isolated tragedies. Nigeria loses one woman every seven minutes to pregnancy-related causes, according to the latest estimates by the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group, which draws on 2023 data. The country accounts for 29% of global maternal deaths. Nigeria’s heavy reliance on out-of-pocket healthcare spending means many families must find cash before treatment begins.

For Kemi Olakunle, founder of HealthVest, the stories reinforced a question that had shaped her work for years: could helping women save for healthcare before childbirth prevent some of these tragedies?

That question sits at the heart of PreggiCare, HealthVest’s maternal health savings platform. Built on the premise that pregnancy usually gives families months to prepare financially, the platform allows women to save gradually for antenatal care, childbirth and emergencies while giving users access to discounted maternal healthcare through partner hospitals.

The idea behind HealthVest began taking shape during Olakunle’s Master’s programme, where she focused her research on health financing.

The interest was also shaped by what she witnessed years earlier while working as a doctor’s assistant during her mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) posting in Edo State, southern Nigeria. Patients routinely delayed treatment, sometimes for weeks, because they simply could not afford it.

The experience changed the direction of her career.

“I told my parents that the money they want to give me for medicine, they should keep it. I want to find the answer to unaffordable healthcare in Nigeria,” she recalled telling her parents.

As she studied Nigeria’s healthcare challenges, Olakunle became increasingly interested in informal savings systems that have long been part of everyday life: ajo — Nigeria’s informal rotating savings groups — cooperatives and community contribution schemes that families rely on to pay for school fees, start businesses and build homes.

“What if people could save for healthcare the way our parents saved for houses, school fees, businesses and so many other things?” she remembered asking herself.

That question became Health4Moni, a pilot programme backed by the Bayer Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bayer AG, which funds health and social innovation initiatives.

In late 2023, Olakunle approached the traders’ association at Bodija Market, one of the largest and busiest markets in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State in southwestern Nigeria, with an idea. She printed paper ajo cards and deployed field agents to move through the market’s stalls several times a week, collecting small health savings contributions.

The programme enrolled more than 1,000 people during its 2023–2024 pilot, Olakunle said.

The pilot also exposed the scale of untreated chronic illness among low-income Nigerians. According to Olakunle, between 40% and 50% of participants screened during the programme had undiagnosed or untreated hypertension and diabetes.

“We would see people with blood pressure 200 millimetres of mercury,” she said. “In medicine, that’s what you call a walking dead person. Anything can happen. They can just slump and die.”

But the pilot also revealed weaknesses in the model.

After six months, many of the healthier participants, who made up most of the programme, began dropping out. Without their contributions, sustaining the savings pool became increasingly difficult.

Then came the encounter that changed the direction of the company.

During one of the programme’s mobile clinic visits, a woman who was about four months pregnant approached Olakunle, hoping to enrol so the scheme could help cover the cost of her antenatal care and eventual delivery.

Olakunle had to turn her away.

Health4Moni had not been designed to support maternal healthcare, and the programme lacked the resources to take on the additional costs. But the conversation stayed with her long after the clinic ended.

She began to see pregnancy differently from the chronic illnesses the pilot had focused on. Unlike many medical emergencies, pregnancy usually offers months of advance notice. That window, she believed, could become an opportunity for women to prepare financially for delivery and possible complications.

“If I can do an intervention that caters to these people and is successful,” she said, “then I have the resources and the proof to go back to the market that has my heart in the first place.”

That decision gave birth to PreggiCare, the product that now sits at the centre of HealthVest’s strategy.

HealthVest launched as a web app in December 2025, with PreggiCare as its flagship product.

Users can deposit whatever they can afford—whether ₦200 (($0.15), ₦500 ($0.37) or ₦1,000 ($0.73) at a time— into the digital wallet that earns 10% annual interest. When they need medical care, they can use their savings across a network of more than 50 partner hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies, where they receive discounts of up to 30% on healthcare services.

Complementing the savings wallet is the Pregnancy Moni Campaign, an initiative that encourages women of reproductive age to begin saving for pregnancy and childbirth before they require maternity care.

“We want women to save little by little towards their maternal healthcare before and during pregnancy,” Olakunle said.

The platform enables users to build savings for antenatal appointments, laboratory tests, medications, childbirth, emergency procedures and postnatal care.

According to Olakunle, PreggiCare currently serves more than 150 active users.

Although maternal healthcare remains HealthVest’s core focus, the company has gradually expanded its health savings model to address other medical needs.