Startups and Partnerships, EurAfrican Forum enables cross pollination of ideas: Dr. Precious Lunga – Baobab Circle

Search Results Featured snippet from the web Dr. Precious Lunga is CEO and Co-Founder of Baobab Circle, a health technology company delivering innovative health solutions via phones across Africa. She will be joining the 2nd edition of the EurAfrican Forum in Portugal as a speaker.

Dr. Precious Lunga, CEO and Co-Founder of Baobab Circle, will be joining the 2nd edition of the EurAfrican Forum in Portugal as a speaker, taking place on July 4-5. The EurAfrican Forum exists to explore and promote the power of diasporas as a connecting force between cities, regions and continents, between cultures, companies and people. It is an action-oriented gathering of leaders that aims to foster stronger collaboration between Europe and Africa to promote a shared green and inclusive growth for the two continents, fostering mechanisms for collaboration and creating new synergies and partnerships. Under the theme “Partnership of Equals: Sharing Values, Sharing Prosperity”, the 2019 Forum will focus on common challenges, changing relationships, aiming to create fresh opportunities, showcasing examples of progress and inspiring transformation for a shared prosperous and sustainable common future of Europe and Africa.

Dr. Lunga spoke to ITBUSINESSDIRECT about her work at Baobab Circle and her participation at the 2nd edition of the EurAfrican Forum.

What is the Story behind Baobab Circle and why now?

We saw that that non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension affect millions of Africans with limited resources and access to traditional healthcare systems. The growing numbers of people suffering from strokes, blindness, amputations etc is a signal of how serious this problem is. We know we can prevent these catastrophic medical complications despite these physical infrastructure challenges which is why Baobab Circle was started to reach people through their mobile phones with support and oversight for managing their health.

What’s the biggest challenge in running your company?

A big challenge is how to reach as many people as possible. We have figured out that the best way to do this is through local partnerships which we are doing well. What we need is increased awareness about these conditions within local populations even before people start to experience symptoms.

Is Africa the ‘go to’ perfect launch pad for any company especially focusing on Tech or is this just a buzzword?

For us the enormity of the problem, deficits in physical infrastructure, proliferation of mobile phones and the openness to using technology to solve across Africa is definitely a big draw.

At the moment, how do you measure success and how you’ve approached change?

Our goal is to reach every affected person with our personalised health support. Each person we enrol on to our service is a win for us.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Building a start up!

Do you think this platform (the EurAfrican Forum) is relevant for change? For transformational action? Why?

Yes definitely, fragmentation within industries is a consistent issue I’ve seen across the continent, with too many business trying to solve huge problems at a local scale. The forum’s approach enables cross pollination of ideas and for companies like ours to highlight the needs of the market we serve and to form partnerships and opportunities for collaboration to deliver our solutions at scale.

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