LOCAL SPOTLIGHT: Folake Owodunni: The Woman Using Tech To Save Lives

An estimated 1.2 million Nigerians die annually due to a lack of access to efficient emergency medical services. (Federal Ministry of Health). This figure represents roughly half of all deaths in the country, driven by a lack of proper pre-hospital care and transport to hospitals. (AIT reports) Staggering, isn’t it?

Well, a phenomenal woman in tech called Folake Owodunni came up with a solution to this crisis. Folake didn’t just build another app; she rebuilt the bridge between a medical crisis and quick access to emergency health care.

If you live in Nigeria, then you know that this is critical, as many people have sadly passed in the wake of a medical emergency while trying to access emergency services, usually in a critical window, like a victim of ‘one-chance robbery’ needing emergency care.

As the CEO and co-founder of Emergency Response Africa (ERA), her mission was born out of the stark reality in Nigeria’s emergency sector. Folake has designed a tech-driven ecosystem that treats emergency care as a logistics challenge rather than just a medical one.

When an emergency occurs, the platform doesn’t just call an ambulance; it tracks the victim and identifies the nearest “First Responder”—often a trained bike-medic who can weave through gridlock to stabilise the patient before a larger vehicle arrives. This tiered response system is revolutionary for cities like Abuja and Kaduna because of travel time or other issues.

The interesting thing about this innovation lies in the data integration. ERA’s technology maps out available hospital beds and specialised equipment in real-time.

This ensures that a patient isn’t just rushed to the “nearest” clinic, but to the right one where they can get help immediately—the one with working equipment or a doctor on standby.

Digitising the dispatch process and integrating it with a network of verified responders strips away the chaos of Nigerian emergency rooms.

This effectively proves that while the country’s infrastructure has gaps, smart technology can be the glue that holds a life-saving system together. Folake’s work is a pointer to how localised tech can solve one of society’s most visceral problems and give Nigerians the right to survive a crisis.