CarePay Group, a prominent player in Africa's digital health landscape, has announced significant leadership changes aimed at steering its strategy and regional expansion. Moses G. Kuria has been appointed as the acting CEO of Care International and its innovative health platform, M-TIBA. This appointment follows the departure of Pieter Prickaerts, who concluded his nearly seven-year tenure with the company, including two years as Group CEO. The board acknowledged Prickaerts' crucial role in building the organization and expanding its operations across East Africa, expressing gratitude for his leadership and foundational contributions to its growth.

Kuria brings a decade of experience within CarePay, having previously served as Group CFO and managing director of M-TIBA. An MBA graduate from the University of Nairobi, he is now tasked with overseeing the group's overall strategy and driving the regional expansion of its advanced health insurance technology platform. Complementing this leadership transition, CarePay also announced the appointment of Irene Nafula as acting managing director of M-TIBA Kenya. Nafula, who was previously the Commercial Director for the platform, possesses over 15 years of expertise in healthcare operations, product development, and service delivery. Holding a master’s degree in Organizational Development from the United States International University, she will be responsible for overseeing all Kenyan operations, including critical partnerships with insurers and healthcare providers, optimizing operational performance, and ensuring high-quality service delivery to members.

CarePay's journey began in Kenya in 2015 with the launch of M-TIBA, a pioneering mobile health wallet. This platform was designed to create a seamless connection between patients, healthcare providers, and insurers, enabling members to efficiently receive, store, and utilize funds for healthcare services through mobile technology. Since its inception, CarePay has successfully expanded its footprint beyond Kenya, establishing operations in Nigeria and Tanzania. Its versatile technology platform is now widely adopted by insurers, governments, and development partners to effectively manage healthcare payments and implement comprehensive insurance programs, thereby connecting millions of members to a broad network of healthcare providers and payers across its operational markets.

Despite its significant advancements, CarePay has also encountered challenges. In 2024, the company faced considerable scrutiny following a cyberattack on the M-TIBA platform, which resulted in the exposure of personal and medical information belonging to nearly 5 million users in Kenya. This breach went undetected for approximately ten days before it was identified and reported, highlighting the critical importance of robust cybersecurity measures in the digital health sector. The current leadership changes are strategically timed as the company continues its ambitious drive to expand its digital health payments infrastructure throughout various African healthcare systems, learning from past incidents to strengthen future operations.

The strategic shift in CarePay’s leadership underscores a broader transformation in digital health infrastructure across Africa. Platforms like M-TIBA are at the forefront of addressing fundamental issues within the region’s healthcare systems, particularly fragmented payment mechanisms and limited insurance coverage. Kenya, with its highly developed mobile money ecosystem, provides an ideal environment for health wallets like M-TIBA to operate and scale effectively. M-TIBA’s innovative model integrates patients, insurers, governments, and healthcare providers onto a single, cohesive payment platform. This structure offers multiple benefits: it empowers insurers to maintain control over fund utilization, ensures verified payments for providers, and facilitates the targeted distribution of healthcare funding by governments and donors to specific users or services.

This digital health payment model is rapidly gaining interest across African health systems, especially given the persistently low insurance penetration rates and the prevalence of out-of-pocket payments in healthcare spending. National health programs, such as Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), and other initiatives are actively exploring digital distribution channels to broaden coverage and improve access. Furthermore, global health organizations and development finance institutions that fund healthcare access programs are increasingly recognizing the potential of these digital systems. As these platforms continue to expand into countries like Nigeria and Tanzania, they are steadily becoming integral components of the infrastructure managing insurance, health financing, and patient data within emerging healthcare systems. The future success for companies such as CarePay will largely hinge on their ability to scale secure digital infrastructure effectively, while rigorously managing the inherent data protection risks that accompany large-scale health databases.