- The National Insight presents to you African Countries with the Best Healthcare System 2024.
- South Africa, Kenya, and Algeria have the best healthcare systems in Africa, according to NUMBEO and as indicated in the table provided below.
Health is wealth! Perhaps that’s what many who value a healthy life would say. But did you know that poor health has ripped many off their decades of hard work, rendering them poor? Now, the status of healthcare in Africa isn’t that bad, but as a developing economy, improving healthcare coverage through funding and technological leverage is the only fulcrum to realizing a standard and healthy life for the billions of people.
Almost every African country has a two-tier healthcare system, consisting of a public sector, managed by the ministry of health, and a private sector, largely funded by private insurance and out-of-pocket payments. But the African healthcare system reels from underlying issues that need urgent action: underfunding and inadequate infrastructure.
The African healthcare system is the most underfunded and underdeveloped. Looking into the budgetary spanning several fast-developing economies is appalling; the least allocation compared to other uncomanding sectors. Indeed, every other sector is important due to a layer of support they each offer to one another, but with poor health, sectors such as public service can intrinsically collapse.
A mid-year analysis by NUMBEO shows that South Africa has the best healthcare system in Africa, closely followed by Kenya, scoring 63.8 and 61.5 healthcare index, respectively. Approximately 80% of South Africans rely on the public healthcare system, which, despite having some of the best medical facilities, faces significant challenges.
Both South African and Kenyan healthcare systems face underfunding and overcrowding, with long waiting times due to inadequate staffing. Moreover, many doctors prefer to work in the private sector, leading to shortages of professionals and dilapidated conditions in the public healthcare facilities.
In 2024, South Africa passed the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill aimed at providing universal healthcare access. However, its implementation faces legal challenges, operational concerns, and funding. South African cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town are recognized as the top-tier medical destinations in Africa.
The Kenyan healthcare system ranks well on various metrics, including diagnostic equipment quality and skilled personnel availability. Kenya introduced the Universal Health Coverage (UHC), which aims to offer comprehensive and broader healthcare access to everyone, including those in the deepest remote zones. However, UHC has been facing myriads of critical challenges, including insufficient health workers, limited insurance coverage, and insufficient essential service across health facilities.
With only about 10% of public health facilities providing basic services, such failures lie largely on poor governance. A change of guarg dictates a lot in Kenyan economic progress. Kenya decreased the intern medics’ salary a year ago, and since then the situation has been exacerbated by long months of unpaid wages. This has resulted in the demise of several intern doctors to suicide.
In October 1st, 2024, the government of Kenya launched the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), which requires a monthly contribution from both formal and informal sector workers. Now rebranded to Taifa Care, the new system aims to create a more sustainable funding model for healthcare.
In 2024, the Nigerian government allocated approximately N1.23 trillion to health, which is less than 5% of the total proposed government expenditure. Nigeria, despite an improving healthcare system, grapples with rapid population growth, which suffers from underfuning and staffing. The government of Nigeria received a whopping $1.57 billion from the World Bank to support better healthcare for women, children, and adolescents, expected to enhance service delivery in primary healthcare.
The government of Nigeria has also made commitments towards the Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This could be realized following the signing of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Compact. Efforts are also underway to increase the number of functional primary healthcare centers from 8,000 to 17,000 by 2026, with a focus on improving access to essential health services.
In Egypt, a new law was passed in 2024 allowing private entities to manage public health facilities on a for-profit basis. The move has raised concerns about accessibility and affordability of healthcare services for millions of Egyptians. Approximately 66% of the Egyptian population is covered by public health insirance.
Egypt has reached a notable milestone in being a malaria-free country. In October 2024, the World Health Organization certified Egypt as malaria-free, which highlights the effectiveness of public health initiatives. Egypt’s public healthcare system, however, struggles with a shortage of hospital beds, with only 1.4 beds per 1,000 people compared to the global average of 2.9 beds per 1,000 people.
African Countries with the Best Healthcare System in 2024
Source: NUMBEO
