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Interview: Matt Williams, Group CEO & Director, Africa Healthcare Network

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With HBI 2024 approaching, we spoke with Matt Williams, Group CEO & Director at Africa Healthcare Network (AHN), Sub Saharan Africa’s largest dialysis chain, about the company’s pioneering work in underserved parts of the continent.

AHN’s mission is to transform kidney care across Africa, expanding access to high quality care including in remote, hard to reach areas. 

High quality dialysis care has historically only been available in big cities across Sub Saharan Africa, provided by hospitals who charged prices that put the life-saving care out of reach for the majority of the population.

“In most of the world, if your kidneys fail and you need dialysis, you have access. But in Africa the general situation is not like that. Currently only one in 10 patients that needs dialysis is able to receive it, and so sadly nine out of 10 patients won’t survive due to the lack in access to care,” Williams explains.

“At AHN, we saw a huge opportunity on the continent. The three big global players – DaVita, Fresenius and Diaverum – weren’t making significant investments into the continent. So there was a big open space for a company like ours.

“We started in 2015 in Rwanda. We then moved on to Tanzania and Kenya and now we’re launching into Southern Africa and West Africa.”

The company currently has a network of 56 dialysis centres across East Africa, with plans to expand to 75 centres by the end of this year and to more than 100 dialysis centres by 2025.

Whilst roughly one in 10 adults has chronic kidney disease in Europe, in Africa it’s more like one in seven.

“The burden of disease is quite high in this region. A lot of factors like diabetes, hypertension and genetics play into these disparities in the figures. The kidneys can also be impacted by HIV, malaria, by severe dehydration or other infections or drugs.”

This means that in Kenya for example, 7,000 patients are currently on dialysis out of a population of 55m. The number of patients is expected to increase dramatically over the coming years as government insurance expands to cover more patients.

Williams explains AHN is investing in Kenya by opening one to two new centres every month, and expects to add 20 plus centres this year in Kenya alone.

“A typical center in Kenya treats between 50-75 patients per week, with capacity to handle 100-150 patients,” Williams says.

Whilst dialysis is the company’s central remit, Williams is also super excited about the work AHN is doing on the preventative side.

“We’re actually investing quite heavily in disease prevention. We have a view around holistic care that includes everything from prevention to transplantation support, and everything in between.

“One thing we’ve been able to do in our 56 centres – the vast majority of which are within a hospital – is create a Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Registry, whereby we help our hospital partners identify patients with elevated creatine levels much earlier, then design targeted interventions to either delay or even prevent the progression of kidney disease.

“The vast majority of patients have no idea that their kidneys are failing. We help diagnose this and hope they’ll never become our dialysis patient at all.

“We’ve also launched a nutrition programme whereby fully trained nutritionists visit each center to do a one-on-one consult with each patient every month, to help advise on the proper diet to keep them healthy. Again, there’s a large overlap in comorbidities with diabetes, hypertension and other conditions. So if we can move upstream, there is a lot we can do to prevent progression and improve quality of life.”

It is this focus on prevention that has seen AHN recently partner with Avenue Healthcare, a leading chain of hospitals and medical centres in Kenya.

Avenue Healthcare came to AHN and asked if the company could build dialysis centres across its hospitals network. This led to a partnership in which Avenue Healthcare is effectively outsourcing its dialysis work to AHN.

Williams explains AHN is focused on doubling down on its model which has succeeded so far, rather than chasing every opportunity that comes along.

“In Africa it is not about the fanciest ideas or technologies, but rather the business model innovation and execution. That’s what really differentiates companies.

“Looking ahead, if you just look at the demographics and population dynamics there is huge growth that’s going to come from Africa: this is Africa’s century.

“We have shown that it can be done in a profitable and sustainable way, and you can achieve scale if you have the right kind of protocols and operational practices.”

There are economic and political risks on the continent, but also enormous opportunities. Williams is hoping to inject “a little bit of a different angle from an emerging markets perspective” in this regard at HBI 2024 next month.

We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Daniel Emmett-Gulliver or call 0207 183 3779.