In recent times, access to healthcare has become more digitally enabled, thanks to a wave of health-tech startups offering telemedicine, pharmacy services, and micro-insurance. Despite this progress, access remains uneven, especially for users outside formal healthcare systems or those without traditional insurance.
However, Nigerian health-tech startups like WellaHealth are developing innovative approaches to expand healthcare delivery across Nigeria and Africa at large.
Founded in 2018, the startup has launched an embedded tool that allows users to access its healthcare services while using platforms people already use daily. The ZOI-embed is a plug-and-play digital tool that allows businesses to offer health coverage to their customers directly within their existing platform or service.
“Users can come to an application, get a diagnosis, get access to the largest digital network of pharmacies in Nigeria, get diverse drugs, even get their doctors’ lab tests, all from embedding this product into your home application,” Samuel Okpo, CTO at WellaHealth, told Techpoint Africa.
The ZOI embed was designed to allow businesses, such as fintech, e-commerce, or mobility, to offer micro-health insurance plans and more to their existing customers.
How the ZOI-embed works
For business, their platform is integrated with WellaHealth’s Application Programming Interface (API) system, which WellaHealth says takes less than 48 hours. Users can now access the tool directly via these businesses’ websites, apps, socials, or text.
“The idea is that the customer will see ZOI as a new add-on feature on your platform. The brands decide if the customers see that they’re leaving this platform for another platform or if they want customers to perceive it as if they’re the ones providing this service, then we also white-label that,” Okpo explains.
Through the ZOI embed, these platforms can offer flexible health plans to their users. The plans range from basic malaria coverage, which is WellaHealth’s general micro-insurance plan, to more comprehensive packages like doctor consultations, lab tests, and disease support, depending on their customer base and pricing model decided by the business.
Customers can sign up with the usual Know Your Customer (KYC) format.
These embedded services are backed by WellaHealth’s healthcare infrastructure, and they integrate with a platform’s payment channels like cards, wallets, transfers, recurring payments, or monthly contributions. These payments are capped monthly or yearly, depending on the choice, and part of it is remunerated to these businesses.
“Once a customer purchases a health plan through the ZOI embed, WellaHealth handles and processes the actual healthcare delivery. Customers can get referrals for labs, and even pharmacies can deliver drugs for free once payment for the plan is completed,” Okpo says.
For brands with a large user base, prices can be negotiated. The ZOI embed tool has been adopted by Nigerian brands like Palmpay, MTN, and Airtel.
Beyond convenience
While the ZOI-embed could expand access to healthcare, it also represents a business move for WellaHealth, as it opens a new distribution and revenue channel.
With this embedded tool, the company is reaching users beyond its traditional audience, especially those in fintech, telecoms, and the mobility ecosystems.
While the embed tool is an innovative solution meant to democratise access to health services, its business model comes with strengths and challenges, especially in the African healthcare market.
Few African healthtech platforms are currently deploying this embedded model at scale, giving WellaHealth a potential advantage. But the approach also introduces complexity: the company now depends on third-party platforms to reach users, which could limit direct engagement and data visibility.
Moreover, to drive adoption, WellaHealth would need to incentivise its partners, sharing a portion of revenue with host platforms, a trade-off that could thin margins compared to direct-to-customer models.
With over seven years of establishment and 2,500+ healthcare partners across Nigeria, WellaHealth is leveraging its network to boost the adoption of this new tool.
Its custom insurance products and free ROI calculator already provide users with custom solutions, which are now tailored to each business model.
With this new embed tool, WellaHealth is extending the reach of its insurance and healthcare service provision. Its solutions now go beyond pharmacies, patients, and insurers; the startup is meeting customers where they are. Still, its success will depend on how effectively it balances incentives, customer satisfaction, and sustainable pricing.
