A sustainable, resilient oxygen infrastructure for COVID and beyond
We are building Africa’s largest network of oxygen entrepreneurs to address the supply gap in medical oxygen generation and distribution across the continent.
The oxygen shortage in Sub-Saharan Africa
Even before COVID, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffered an immense shortage of medical oxygen for treating conditions like pneumonia, postpartum hemorrhage and infant respiratory distress. The region’s annual supply averaged 4 million cubic meters, a stark shortfall compared to an estimated need of 40+ million cubic meters per year. COVID has unsurprisingly widened this gap, with demand exceeding 50 million cubic meters per year as the pandemic persists.
The opportunity of franchising oxygen supply
ITT is building a multi-country franchise business in SSA, The Oxygen Hub, increase medical oxygen supply to underserved peri-urban areas and small/mid-sized towns. We are partnering with top African healthcare entrepreneurs to build a distributed Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) infrastructure and help them overcome barriers to their sustainability and scale.
The franchisor supports entrepreneurs with financing, equipment leasing and management support. As the entrepreneurs demonstrate consistent success, they will take over ownership of the assets. With initial focus on underserved peri-urban areas and small/mid-sized towns, distribution will gradually expand into rural areas via a hub-and-spoke model.
This effort will tackle short-term COVID demand while building a resilient, locally-owned-and-managed infrastructure to deal with ongoing medical needs. We’ve started in Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia and plan to expand across the continent. Over the next 3 years, our business model will drive a 3-5x increase in SSA’s oxygen supply and lay the foundation for future growth in smaller countries and rural areas throughout the region.
Evaluating local entrepreneurs
Quality of management and team
Strong CEO with proven track record of impact-oriented business
Strong ties with relevant local and federal government stakeholders
Reputable in industry/market among peers/customers
Strong team beyond CEO (or proven ability to develop talent)
Experience operating in healthcare and logistics
Experience in oxygen delivery or related health/logistics business
Deep understanding of local market and healthcare systems
Experience with public procurement processes
Ability to quickly mobilize resources
Currently have space (or can quickly obtain space) to expand production
Have fulfilled or can quickly fulfill necessary regulatory requirements
We’ll be driven by the following imperatives:
- Close partnership with other ecosystem actors
- Build on existing capacity, focusing on identifying the best entrepreneurial talent and strengthening local businesses
- Strong focus on business rigor, with limited reliance on grants beyond what is essential
- Commitment to social impact and improved health outcomes
- Bias towards proven existing technologies rather than technological “bells-and-whistles”
- Flexible financing and operating models that responds to nuances in each market
Our timeline
Launch immediately then sustainably increase capacity by 3-5x
Our Team and Partners
Our team
Effeson Hailemichael
CEO, The Oxygen Hub
Shashi Buluswar
President, The Oxygen Hub
Etse-Hiwot Girma
Strategist, The Oxygen Hub
Ruth Njuguna
Kenya Country Manager, The Oxygen Hub
Sanjay Khazanchi
Supply Chain Lead, The Oxygen Hub
Advisors
Sam Thenya
Founder & Director of Strategy, The Nairobi Women's Hospital
Nnamdi Agbim
CEO, Interkel Networks
Strive Masiyiwa
Founder and Executive Chairman, Econet Global
Madji Sock
Partner, Dalberg Advisors
Partners
Frequently Asked Questions
Why our approach?
The large incumbents in the oxygen supply landscape are not addressing medical need.
Dominating the region’s oxygen supply are a small number of colonial-era multinational companies holding more than 90% of market share. These large companies operate large, centralized cryogenic air separation plants that produce ultra-high concentration oxygen ( >99% O2) for industrial and medical applications. Focusing exclusively on urban markets, they deliver and pump oxygen into bulk storage tanks connected to networks of tubes running through tertiary referral hospitals. To meet COVID related demand, these large-scale producers have expanded capacity for their urban customers but carry on with de-prioritizing primary and secondary care facilities in fragmented, unprofitable, non-urban markets.
Our goal is to create medium-scale, distributed infrastructure that bring oxygen to underserved parts of the region’s health systems.
The likely footfall of COVID patients
Footfall of non-COVID patients under normal conditions
Who can supply the region’s non-urban medical centers and clinics?
Of the various oxygen supply/delivery mechanisms, medium-scale PSA facilities offer the most promising option for non-urban COVID needs and the post-COVID long term
Applicability for segments underserved by existing and COVID surge supply
What does the current PSA market look like?
In recent years, a small number of entrepreneurs have emerged as alternatives to the large incumbents in the medical oxygen market. These mid-sized operators use pressure swing adsorption (PSA) to produce oxygen of 90-95% concentration for medical use.
Medium-scale PSA facilities can potentially constitute 40-50% of the supply solution
PSA generators can either plug into medical facilities’ oxygen networks, or they can fill portable cylinders distributed to clinics and hospitals. The medium-scale PSA model offers the potential for expanding oxygen supply well beyond the reach of the large incumbents.
For more information, please contact us.
