In 2025, two harrowing accounts of pregnant women devastated by unaffordable healthcare went viral across Nigerian social media.

In the first case, a woman developed pregnancy complications and was rushed to a private hospital by her husband. The hospital reportedly demanded an upfront payment of ₦500,000 ($368) before initiating treatment. Unable to raise the funds, the couple set out for a government hospital. She died in the car before they arrived. The incident ignited widespread outrage, with many Nigerians asking why a woman in critical condition could be denied life-saving care simply because she lacked the money to pay.

The second case was equally devastating. A woman pregnant with twins developed complications and urgently required ₦28,000 ($20.62) for treatment. She did not have the money. By the time financial assistance arrived, both babies had died in the womb. Doctors subsequently delivered the stillborn twins in an effort to save her life and prevent maternal sepsis.

These were not isolated tragedies. Nigeria loses one woman every seven minutes to pregnancy-related causes, according to the latest estimates by the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group, which draws on 2023 data. The country accounts for 29% of global maternal deaths. Nigeria's heavy reliance on out-of-pocket healthcare spending — which accounts for roughly 70% of total health expenditure, among the highest rates in the world — means many families must find cash before treatment can begin. Despite the National Health Insurance Authority Act of 2022, which made health insurance mandatory for all Nigerians, actual enrolment remains in the single digits, leaving the vast majority without financial protection against medical costs.

For Kemi Olakunle, founder of HealthVest, these stories reinforced a question that had shaped her work for years: could helping women save for healthcare before childbirth prevent some of these tragedies?

That question sits at the heart of PreggiCare, HealthVest's maternal health savings platform. Built on the premise that pregnancy typically gives families months to prepare financially, the platform enables women to save gradually for antenatal care, childbirth, and emergencies while providing access to discounted maternal healthcare through partner hospitals.

Before HealthVest Came Health4Moni

The idea behind HealthVest began taking shape during Olakunle's Master's programme, where her research centered on health financing.

Her interest was also shaped by experiences years earlier, when she worked as a doctor's assistant during her mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) posting in Edo State, southern Nigeria. Patients routinely delayed treatment — sometimes for weeks — because they simply could not afford it.

The experience altered the trajectory of her career.

"I told my parents that the money they want to give me for medicine, they should keep it. I want to find the answer to unaffordable healthcare in Nigeria," she recalled.

As she studied Nigeria's healthcare challenges, Olakunle grew increasingly interested in the informal savings systems that have long been woven into everyday Nigerian life: ajo — the country's informal rotating savings groups — as well as cooperatives and community contribution schemes that families depend on to pay school fees, launch businesses, and build homes. These trusted, community-based mechanisms have survived for generations precisely because they fit the cash-flow realities of millions of Nigerians who operate outside the formal banking system — a population that conventional health insurance has consistently failed to reach.

"What if people could save for healthcare the way our parents saved for houses, school fees, businesses and so many other things?" she remembered asking herself.

That question evolved into Health4Moni, a pilot programme backed by the Bayer Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bayer AG, which funds health and social innovation initiatives.

In late 2023, Olakunle approached the traders' association at Bodija Market, one of the largest and busiest markets in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State in southwestern Nigeria, with a concept. She printed paper ajo cards and deployed field agents to move through the market's stalls several times a week, collecting small health savings contributions.

The programme enrolled more than 1,000 people during its 2023–2024 pilot, Olakunle said.

The pilot also exposed the scale of untreated chronic illness among low-income Nigerians. According to Olakunle, between 40% and 50% of participants screened during the programme had undiagnosed or untreated hypertension and diabetes.

"We would see people with blood pressure 200 millimetres of mercury," she said. "In medicine, that's what you call a walking dead person. Anything can happen. They can just slump and die."

However, the pilot also revealed structural weaknesses in the model. After six months, many of the healthier participants — who made up the majority of the programme — began dropping out. Without their contributions, sustaining the savings pool became increasingly difficult.

Then came an encounter that would redirect the company's focus.

During one of the programme's mobile clinic visits, a woman approximately four months pregnant approached Olakunle, hoping to enrol so the scheme could help cover the cost of her antenatal care and eventual delivery.

Olakunle had to turn her away. Health4Moni had not been designed to support maternal healthcare, and the programme lacked the resources to absorb the additional costs. But the conversation stayed with her long after the clinic ended.

She began to see pregnancy differently from the chronic illnesses the pilot had targeted. Unlike many medical emergencies, pregnancy usually offers months of advance notice. That window, she believed, could become an opportunity for women to prepare financially for delivery and potential complications.

By the end of 2025, after months of rethinking the model, she decided to narrow the company's focus to maternal healthcare.

"If I can do an intervention that caters to these people and is successful," she said, "then I have the resources and the proof to go back to the market that has my heart in the first place."

That decision gave rise to PreggiCare, the product that now sits at the centre of HealthVest's strategy.

How HealthVest Works

HealthVest launched as a web app in December 2025, with PreggiCare as its flagship product.

Users can deposit whatever they can afford — whether ₦200 ($0.15), ₦500 ($0.37), or ₦1,000 ($0.73) at a time — into a digital wallet that earns 10% annual interest. When they need medical care, they can use their savings across a network of more than 50 partner hospitals, laboratories, and pharmacies, where they receive discounts of up to 30% on healthcare services.

Complementing the savings wallet is the Pregnancy Moni Campaign, an initiative that encourages women of reproductive age to begin saving for pregnancy and childbirth before they require maternity care.

"We want women to save little by little towards their maternal healthcare before and during pregnancy," Olakunle said.

The platform enables users to build savings for antenatal appointments, laboratory tests, medications, childbirth, emergency procedures, and postnatal care.

According to Olakunle, PreggiCare currently serves more than 150 active users.

Beyond Maternal Care

Although maternal healthcare remains HealthVest's core focus, the company has gradually expanded its health savings model to address other medical needs.

Its Grey and Ruby Care wallet is designed for people living with hypertension and diabetes, connecting users with specialists and clinical dietitians while helping them save towards the cost of treatment.

Another offering, the Wellness Care wallet, targets individuals without pre-existing medical conditions. It encourages users to save for routine health screenings and unexpected medical expenses before illnesses escalate into emergencies.

The Sickle Cell Care wallet was introduced after people living with sickle cell disease approached the company, explaining that they were frequently excluded from conventional health insurance due to the high cost of treatment.

Across its product offerings, HealthVest also provides virtual consultations with doctors and medication delivery services, according to Olakunle.

Big Ambitions

HealthVest's work has begun attracting recognition beyond Nigeria's borders.

The African Union selected the startup as an AU Youth Startup, and at the African Startup Conference in Algiers in December 2025, the company secured grant funding to support its goal of onboarding 10,000 pregnant women by the end of 2026.

For Olakunle, however, recognition is secondary to validating the company's underlying idea. Her immediate objective is to demonstrate that consistent health savings can improve access to maternal healthcare for women who might otherwise struggle to afford treatment when complications arise.

"If I can solve health financing," she said, "then I can unlock healthcare access for millions of Nigerians."

In the longer term, she hopes to build an integrated ecosystem that combines digital health financing tools with physical clinics serving underserved communities, enabling patients to access care seamlessly both online and in person.

For now, the company's ambition remains anchored in a simple but urgent question. In a country where women still lose their lives because treatment comes too late, can saving a few hundred naira at a time, months before delivery, make the difference between reaching a hospital in time and arriving too late?

That is the question Olakunle is determined to answer — one small deposit at a time.