A digital platform for universal health insurance has launched in Senegal. The platform was developed by L’Agence de Couverture Maladie Universelle du Sénégal (Agency for Universal Health Coverage in Senegal – CMU) with the aim of giving citizens access to health information, medical facilities while empowering them to finance and make payments online towards healthcare carried out in Senegal.
Speaking on the objectives of the initiative, Mahammed Abdallah Dionne, Minister of State, Prime Minister and Secretary General of the Presidency in Senegal, said, “The digital transformation of the CMU is the solution provided by Senegal to address the global issue of universal health coverage. The launch of SUNUCMU.com is part of the agenda for the digitization of payments which Senegal initiated in November 2018. Its main objective is to enhance the quality of life of its population; moreover, its development was entirely undertaken by national start-ups. The CMU has contributed to the birth of the IT ecosystem through these various projects.”
According to Iafrikan, the CMU was founded during 2015 and it forms part of Senegal’s government’s programme to speed up the country’s economic and social development. The newly launched health insurance digital platform is said to fall within the scope of the agenda for the digitization of payments which Dionne launched in November 2018.
“With the digital transformation of the CMU, we have set ourselves the challenge of achieving more than 75% health coverage in 24 months. We were delighted with the record level of adoption during the awareness-raising sessions with mutual insurers in the region; this has demonstrated that the added value which we are striving to deliver is in tune with expectations in the field,” said Mouhamed Mahi SY, Agency director of IT systems.
As part of the transformation in the health sector in Senegal, a mobile app will be launched in June 2019 to grant more access to the citizens. Also, biometric kits will be developed by the end of September 2019 to grant access to about 3500 service points in the country while healthcare providers will be geo-located to enable citizens to locate health specialists closest to them.
