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LifeBank’s Tech-Driven Revolution in Healthcare Logistics

Author: Sarah Daniel

LifeBank, a Nigerian health-tech and logistics company, is reshaping healthcare delivery across Africa. With a mission to ensure no African dies due to a lack of essential supplies, LifeBank leverages cutting-edge logistics and digital platforms to bridge long-standing gaps in access, safety, and efficiency.1

Founded in January 2016 and incubated at Lagos’s Co‑Creation Hub, LifeBank was borne out of Temie Giwa‑Tubosun’s personal experience with postpartum hemorrhage and a passion to prevent maternal deaths, leveraging a tech-driven logistics platform that uses real-time data, mobile apps, and a diverse delivery fleet (bikes, boats, drones, trucks) to rapidly connect hospitals with life-saving blood, oxygen, and medical supplies across Africa.2

From Lagos to Kenya and beyond, LifeBank has become a lifeline, delivering blood, oxygen, anti-snake venom, and medical consumables to the last mile using intelligent tech. 1

The Challenge: Healthcare Logistics in Africa

Africa’s healthcare systems are often strained by poor infrastructure, limited access to timely medical supplies, and unreliable cold chains. Rural clinics struggle to receive essential medicines, and hospitals frequently face shortages of blood, oxygen, and anti-snake venom. Postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), snakebites, and equipment failures contribute to preventable deaths every year. These challenges demand solutions that go beyond traditional models.7

Solutions: Products & Platforms

To confront the many healthcare delivery gaps across Africa, LifeBank has developed an impressive suite of solutions grounded in innovation, technology, and local context. These tools are not only designed to respond to emergencies, but also to create resilient, scalable systems that address recurring challenges in health logistics.

From digitised supply chains and blockchain tracking to predictive analytics and drone deliveries, each product within LifeBank’s ecosystem serves a distinct function. Together, they form a holistic response to the supply and infrastructure barriers that burden health systems across the continent.8

• SmartBag: A blockchain-powered platform that ensures traceability of blood from donor to patient. It promotes safety, reduces transfusion-transmitted infections, and enables real-time tracking of blood products. Developed in partnership with Johnson & Johnson, SmartBag is a game-changer for blood logistics.4
• Nerve Marketplace: A digital marketplace where hospitals can order medical consumables, blood, oxygen, and ASV. It offers speed, visibility, and convenience.7
  • ColdBank: A temperature-controlled storage solution for vaccines, insulin, and other temperature-sensitive products. It uses real-time tracking to maintain the cold chain and prevent spoilage. 6
• Quip: Hospitals often struggle with broken equipment. Quip is a platform for managing and maintaining medical devices, ensuring fewer service disruptions and better patient outcomes.6
• SkyBank: LifeBank’s drone delivery solution allows for rapid transport of supplies to remote or inaccessible areas. This enhances delivery efficiency and reliability, especially during emergencies.6
• AirX: Using data analytics, AirX predicts oxygen demand in hospitals and ensures timely restocking. It helps prevent oxygen stockouts, especially in high-dependency units.3,6
• SmartMedi: This blockchain-enabled tool tracks the supply chain of life-saving drugs used in postpartum haemorrhage. It improves drug availability and procurement transparency, which helps to reduce maternal mortality in Africa.7

Impact in Nigeria & Across Africa

Over 30,000 units of blood are being delivered to hospitals in Nigeria and Kenya, improving last-mile access. In maternal health, 1,250 healthcare workers were trained to distribute 4,000 doses of heat-stable carbetocin across four states.

In March 2022, they expanded to Ethiopia with a mission to enable over 100 million Ethiopians to access better quality healthcare from the healthcare facilities that serve them. 9
They have served over 210 facilities in Nigeria, with more than 2,400 deliveries since 2022. Partnerships with state governments to reshape procurement practices, enhancing maternal health outcomes with reduced time-to-care and stockout frequency in high-risk settings.1

What’s Next: Sustaining Impact and Addressing Gaps

LifeBank’s success story is a powerful example of how African-led innovation can address pressing healthcare challenges. However, sustaining this impact will require more than one-time solutions. Ongoing investment in infrastructure, interoperability of health data systems, policy support for emerging health technologies, and wider adoption of innovation at the grassroots level are critical for long-term transformation.

Moreover, challenges such as poor healthcare funding, limited broadband access for real-time logistics, and inadequate regulatory frameworks still hinder the scaling of digital and logistics innovations across Africa. There is also a growing need to integrate these innovations more deeply into national health strategies and expand public-private partnerships.7

For Ducit Blue, LifeBank reinforces the belief that impact-driven innovation must be persistent, people-centered, and policy-supported. As we look ahead, we remain committed to spotlighting, supporting, and scaling the solutions that bring us closer to health equity across Africa.

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