Six in ten Nigerians do not receive adequate medical care each year due to a lack of personal savings, bank accounts, or insurance coverage, coupled with high out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. Financial constraints and limited payment options leave many—particularly women—unable to access vital medical services. Recognizing the potential of digital healthcare payments to alleviate these issues, Dalberg and Visa collaborated on a paper to examine the impact of digitalization on healthcare affordability and accessibility. By enabling patients to save, access credit, and enroll in insurance programs, digital payments hold promise in expanding financial inclusion and enhancing healthcare outcomes. Digitalizing health payments alone cannot solve these healthcare challenges. However,  our analysis revealed that digitalizing payments could drive significant benefits for patients, providers, and governments when pursued in tandem with financial inclusion and literacy initiatives, catered to unbanked or underbanked individuals.

Read the full report on Visa.com.