The Health Enterprise Financing Programme (HEFP) is a collaboration between the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM) at Strathmore University Business School and SNDBX Capital. The programme seeks to strengthen the capacity of owner-managers of private commercial and non-profit hospitals to attract investment and debt financing through a uniquely blended programme combining SNDBX Capital’s Path-to-Finance SME Business De-Risking Model with Strathmore’s health systems management expertise and detailed understanding of Africa’s healthcare business ecosystem.

The program also involves guest sessions by managers from leading financial and investment institutions, who both share crucial information on their expectations and benefit from deeper insights into health businesses and the healthcare ecosystem. Through this, the programme aims to steadily narrow the schism between investors and lenders on one side, and healthcare entrepreneurs and practitioners on the other.

At the end of the programme, participants will have worked with the HEFP experts to structure their business enterprises to be more attractive to potential lenders and investors. The HEFP team will link de-risked entrepreneurs to the most suitable lenders, providing opportunities for additional investment and advisory support through the lending period to help repay loans and/or meet investor obligations. The programme’s measures of success are strengthened entrepreneur capacity to transform businesses into financially viable entities, health enterprise compliance with mandatory lender and investor requirements, and demonstrable ability to attract debt financing and/or investment.

The pilot programme was supported by the Frontiers Health Markets Engage Program with funding from USAID. The pilot programme will run between February and May 2024.