The platform will facilitate aspiring and already-working healthcare workers across the continent to receive accredited education from leading global organizations. The online platform has been officially launched in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, with plans to enter new African markets in 2022. 

Africa is the continent with the largest disease burden globally and only counts on 1.3 healthcare workers per every 1,000 people to support the healthcare systems. Having now the fastest growing population globally, these low healthcare worker-to-patient ratios indicate an urgent need to increase human resource capacity, a need that has only been exacerbated by the global pandemic. 

Freda Katunda, the Co-Founder of LEAP (leap-educate.com) commented: “We are incredibly excited to share all about our EdTech platform. Education Technology in Africa has huge potential and this platform will help healthcare workers across the continent to get the accreditation they need to become highly qualified healthcare professionals. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of our healthcare workers globally, and it has shown the fragility of our healthcare systems. By building capacity in Africa’s health workforce, we will be able to support the UN SDG goals of Good Health and Quality Education. We are equally excited to be launching our second round of funding to support our growth development plans.”  

Statistics from the World Health Organization show that Africa’s gap of healthcare workers will widen over the next decade. By 2030, the world will be short of 18 million health workers, 8 million of which are needed in Africa in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, the WHO also estimates that there will be nearly 40 million new health sector jobs by 2030 at a global level, validating the market potential to train young Africans looking to start their careers in the healthcare sector.

This shortage of healthcare personnel affects almost every facet of public health in sub-Saharan Africa, including child and adult mortality, the quality of maternal healthcare and the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Also affected are countries’ GDP and their overall economic development prospects. A WHO report shows that if Africa fails to achieve Universal Health Coverage and the health-related SDG targets, ‘the region will likely suffer a loss of about US $2.4 trillion international dollars annually’ in economic development outcomes.  

The capacity for education technology in Africa is significant. Globally, EdTech investments reached US$18.66 billion in 2019, and there has been a significant surge in online learning since the Covid-19 pandemic. LEAP will be addressing Africa's healthcare worker shortage through its user-friendly online education platform. Courses on topics such as Healthcare Management, Covid-19, Nutrition, Chronic Illnesses, Physiotherapy, Complex Health Data and many more will be available and accessible via distance learning. 

The Platform has received support from the European Social Funds and has gained further assistance from large institutions like UNICEF, The London School of Economics, MEST, etc. Building on the successful launch, LEAP has now entered its first round of funding to secure additional backing and strategic investors to support the company’s growth development plans.

Florian Schindler, Distance Learning Institute of Berlin’s Technical University (BHT), said: “LEAP’s team has managed to showcase their value since day one. LEAP will be a game-changer for Africa's online healthcare education and I am delighted to watch its journey".

Rolando Satzke, a well-known Pharma executive and former Bayer and Novartis executive for Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “Difficult access to qualifications to increase health human resource capacity leads to lack of healthcare coverage. LEAP addresses exactly that point, catalyzing the collaboration of educational and healthcare organizations to deliver affordable education”.

For universities, academies and healthcare institutions that would like to hear the benefits of partnering with LEAP, please write [email protected] .