Digital security company Gemalto joins Sub-Saharan Africa mHealth initiative

The GSMA pan-African mHealth Initiative (PAMI) is receiving support from Gemalto — one of the world’s leaders in digital security. The initiative aims to strengthen a mobile ecosystem to ultimately improve maternal and child health and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa.

PAMI brings together important stakeholders from the mobile, health and public industries. Last year, the GSMA recorded 253 million unique mobile subscribers across Sub-Saharan Africa. On top of that there are 250 mHealth services currently in operation across the region. This specific project aims to meet the needs of over 15 million pregnant women and mothers with children under five years old.

“There can surely be no clearer illustration of the potential of mobile solutions to fundamentally change the expectations and outcomes of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa,” says Philippe Vallée, COO at Gemalto.

The first phase of the initiative will be launched across Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia in September 2014, extending to Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania in early 2015.

So where does Gemalto fit in? By leveraging relationships with local mobile operators across, the company will help bringing the mHealth and nutrition services through its interactive messaging solution, SmartMessage. The aim is to simplify the relationships between patients and health stakeholders to deliver targeted nutritional and health advice via mobile phones.

“As the world is becoming ever more digital and wireless, we are thrilled to see our solutions being used to support a noble social cause with this initiative”, Vallée adds.