Medismarts, a Nigerian health technology company, is marking its 10th anniversary, celebrating a decade of digitising healthcare operations and building software that now connects hospitals, HMOs, and over three million patients across the country. 

Founded in 2015 by Obinna Osuji and Damilola Oni, Medismarts began with a mission to replace paper-based medical records with digital systems for hospitals. The company launched its first electronic medical records (EMR) platform in 2015, deploying it across more than 100 hospitals, a milestone that came with both progress and significant challenges. 

“Most hospitals didn’t have computers, power supply was unreliable, and many staff had never used a digital system before,” said Obinna Osuji, Founder and CEO of Medismarts. “We built the software, but the environment wasn’t ready. It was a tough beginning.” 

At the time, Medismarts ran an offline model that required physical updates at each hospital site, consuming much of its initial $100,000 investment with little return. “It looked like the company was going to die,” Osuji recalls. 

Turning Point: The Hygeia HMO Partnership 

The company’s breakthrough came in 2016 when Hygeia HMO, one of Nigeria’s leading health maintenance organisations, began searching for a local alternative to foreign health administration software following the naira devaluation. 

Medismarts adapted its EMR into a full HMO management platform, converting patient onboarding into enrollee onboarding, redesigning billing, and enabling real-time eligibility checks. 

Within months, Hygeia HMO processed its first live transaction on the new system. What began as a temporary fix soon evolved into a long-term partnership, formalized through a five-year commercial agreement. With a proven technology in hand, Medismarts expanded the deployment of its proprietary software to additional HMOs across Nigeria. 

That shift transformed the company from a struggling EMR startup into a dominant healthtech provider. In the following years, Medismarts onboarded several more HMOs, including Health Partners, ProHealth HMO, MetroHealth HMO, and Redcare HMO, all of whom remain clients today. 

Industry Leadership and Product Innovation 

Medismarts is credited as the first Nigerian company to build:

● An integrated HMO–provider portal for real-time eligibility and pre-authorisation

● A functioning mobile app for health insurance access and claims status

● A cloud-based claims automation engine used across multiple HMOs and hospitals

Today, the company serves 25 HMOs, about half of the total addressable market, and processes millions of claims and pre-authorisation requests annually. 

“For a single company to power 25 HMOs in a market of about 80 is huge,” Obinna said. “It means we’ve earned the trust of an industry that has traditionally depended on foreign software.” 

Medismarts’ platform has helped hospitals reduce patient waiting times from 4–5 hours to under one hour and enabled HMOs to cut operational costs tied to foreign software, infrastructure, and manual verification. 

“No other healthtech platform customises solutions the way we do,” Obinna added. “Our clients reach us directly, we evolve with their needs, and in 10 years, we’ve never lost a client to another provider.” 

What’s Next: Data, AI, and System-Wide Efficiency 

As Medismarts enters its second decade, its focus is shifting from insurance administration to broader healthcare system intelligence. 

“We have access to data that can drive smarter health investments and preventive care,” Obinna explained. “Our next phase is using AI and analytics to help hospitals, insurers, and governments make better decisions.” 

The company is also investing in automation to reduce repetitive administrative work for hospitals and HMOs. 

“If a process that took one week can now be done in one hour, that efficiency translates to better patient care and healthier margins for our clients,” he said. 

A Decade of Resilience 

Reflecting on the 10-year journey, Obinna acknowledges the statistics: 

“90% of businesses don’t survive the first five years, and another 90% don’t survive the next five. We’ve crossed both milestones. We’re not just surviving, we’re scaling.” 

From a single EMR idea to a nationwide healthtech infrastructure provider, Medismarts continues to position itself as a long-term player in transforming how healthcare works in Nigeria. 

About Medismarts

Medismarts is a Nigerian health technology company providing cloud-based software for hospitals, HMOs, and patients. The platform powers enrollee management, claims automation, real-time data access, and smart health operations for more than 3 million users across the healthcare ecosystem. 

Visit medismarts.tech for more information.