“We took our first loan of 10,000 shillings in 2016. It was a mix of emotions – how would it turn out? It worked very well, helping us improve both our internal operations and the quality of service to the community.”
Josephine Suleiman, CEO Olivelink Healthcare, Nairobi
Watch Olivelink Healthcare’s journey with MCF and SafeCare here.
Mobilizing investments in the health sector
Across sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of healthcare is provided by the private sector. As populations continue to rise, the demand for affordable, quality healthcare has never been greater. The Medical Credit Fund (MCF) is the only fund dedicated to financing small and medium-sized healthcare businesses in Africa.
MCF provides fast and transparent loans for health SMEs through mobile technology. We employ a policy of incremental lending and help people qualify for a loan by decreasing investment risks. We also issue smaller loans where necessary to enable positive repayment track records.
In addition to loans, MCF provides technical assistance, offering expert guidance on business operations and quality improvement. We identify growth opportunities and support the development of compelling business plans.
Supporting healthcare SMEs
The private sector contributes significantly to healthcare provision in sub-Saharan Africa, but healthcare facilities struggle to provide quality care that meets the community's needs. This is because private healthcare businesses are often micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which face severe challenges in access to capital.
Most of these healthcare facilities cannot meet banks' eligibility requirements, and the health sector is not very attractive for banks and other financial institutions. In addition, many health entrepreneurs operating small businesses are women, who have traditionally been unable to access loans due to a lack of collateral.
With access to financing, underserved healthcare providers can purchase medical equipment, improve quality, and prevent medicine stock-outs. As the quality of their services improves, the number of customers and visits increases, thereby increasing their revenues while improving their health.
Part of PharmAccess, the Medical Credit Fund is dedicated to financing small and medium-sized healthcare businesses in Africa. MCF aims to help healthcare facilities access finance to invest in their businesses and ultimately expand access to quality healthcare. So far, MCF has disbursed close to 11,500 loans worth over €188 million to more than 2,300 clients.
MCF continues to be recognized for improving access to financing in the healthcare sector. In 2024, for the 10th year, MCF was listed as one of the ImpactAssets 50, which selects fund managers that demonstrate a wide range of impact investing activities across geographies, sectors, and asset classes.
Expanding access: empowering women entrepreneurs
While Sub-Saharan Africa has a high rate of women entrepreneurs, access to finance remains a major barrier – especially in healthcare. MCF aims to close this gap by offering tailored financial products and support to women health entrepreneurs.
In 2024, we conducted a research project that confirmed the potential of digital loans to empower women but also highlighted ongoing challenges such as low awareness, limited networks, and lack of collateral. In 2025, MCF will continue prioritizing women through targeted financing, technical assistance, and ongoing learning.
Women accounted for 32% of the loans disbursed in Kenya, underscoring the product’s impact in overcoming financing barriers for female entrepreneurs. In 2024, supported by our investor Swedfund, we expanded outreach through targeted marketing and the event "Empowering Women Health Entrepreneurs with Digital Loans," which helped increase visibility and engagement among women in healthcare.
Innovation in financing: digital and term loans
With nearly 1,600 digital loans disbursed, Kenya continues to lead MCF’s digital lending portfolio. In 2024, PharmAccess launched a mobile money-based digital loan product in Ghana, resulting in 14 disbursed loans. Initial uptake was modest due to Ghana’s economic climate and challenges in switching providers.
The digital loan model not only supports financial inclusion for healthcare providers but also improves their digital financial literacy. Providers have started leveraging insights from their digital revenue to guide management decisions.
We are now working to drive adoption in Ghana, and we believe Tanzania is another promising market for launching the product.
In addition to digital loans, MCF has also provided 54 term loans for qualifying health SMEs in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to finance capital intensive projects like medical equipment and construction. These loans are usually labor intensive due to extensive review and technical assistance requirements and therefore mostly for large loans with a long loan tenure.
Strengthening quality and financial resilience
We believe that access to finance and quality of care go hand in hand. By supporting the business of quality, we help healthcare SMEs grow sustainably while improving care for their communities. In partnership with PharmAccess, we offer technical assistance (TA) alongside our loans to reduce business risks and enhance both operational and quality performance. A key part of this support is the implementation of the SafeCare quality improvement program.
Our technical assistance is demand-driven and tailored to each client’s needs. While larger loan recipients receive more extensive support, our focus is increasingly on smaller clinics that often seek working capital and could greatly benefit from SafeCare. Yet these providers often face capacity constraints, making it more difficult for them to start and sustain quality improvement efforts.
To address this, and with the support of investors such as FMO and Swedfund, in 2024, we launched research to better understand how to increase client engagement with TA. This led to the development of a modular TA approach, designed to be more accessible and easier to implement. Piloted with 80 providers in Kenya, the program currently includes two modules, with plans to expand in 2025.