In a bid to bridge Nigeria’s healthcare access gap, an organisation, Koyo HealthTech Limited, has pledged to improve access to trusted, high-quality, and convenient healthcare services for millions of Nigerians.
The founder and CEO of the outfit, Dr Tom Cracknell, stated this yesterday during a media briefing in Abuja to officially launch the Koyo Navigate App in Nigeria, Cracknell.
He described the move as “not just a market entry, but an investment in the future health of Africans.
“Our mission is to dramatically improve access to trusted, high-quality, and convenient healthcare services for millions of Nigerians.
Cracknell emphasised that the launch comes at a time when Nigeria’s health system faces serious challenges. Despite being Africa’s largest economy, the country struggles with critical gaps in healthcare access and a shortage of medical professionals – issues Koyo aims to help address.
He said, Koyo Navigate App is a premium digital solution designed to simplify the often complicated process of seeking healthcare. It provides users with instant access to verified medical professionals and curated, trustworthy health information.
“We want to make the journey toward quality healthcare transparent and empathy-driven, using our core technology,” he stated.
The app connects users with real doctors for real-time text-based conversations, including the option to share photos and videos for enhanced clinical understanding when necessary.
“We don’t conduct physical examinations via text, but we can gather critical clinical information through images and videos,” he explained.
The AI system will extract relevant clinical information from users’ input—identifying positive and negative indicators—before passing the data to human doctors for final diagnosis and treatment planning.
“If someone has a headache, for example, the AI should help differentiate whether it’s more likely to be meningitis or a brain tumor. That’s the kind of precision we’re working toward,” he said.
Koyo’s AI will also support a human-led quality assurance process, supervised by medical experts and an intelligent system capable of monitoring and improving doctor-patient interactions.
In his remarks, the FCT Mandate Secretary for Health, represented by Dr Abubakar Ahmadu, the overseeing director general of the FCT Hospitals Management Board, described the initiative as a “laudable and much-needed innovation.”
“When we talk about technology, we all agree it’s no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. Integrating technology with healthcare delivery is essential,” he said.
Dr Ahmadu acknowledged the limitations of the public health system and expressed willingness to collaborate with Koyo to improve healthcare delivery in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in the FCT, Dr Ayogu Malachy Emeka, welcomed the launch, highlighting the severe shortage of doctors in Nigeria.
“According to the WHO, to achieve universal health coverage, there should be one doctor for every 1,000 people. Currently, we have one doctor for every 5,000 to 10,000 people,” he said.
Dr Ayogu noted that this doctor-patient ratio has resulted in long queues at general and teaching hospitals, as well as primary healthcare centres across the country.
