Temie Giwa-Tubosun just wanted to save lives through the quick delivery of blood to patients in desperate need. However, her enterprise, LifeBank, has gained global interest while she continues to be an African trailblazing female entrepreneur using the latest technology to drive her dream and save lives.
LifeBank is a logistics company collecting blood from registered blood banks and delivers it to hospital patients. It also supplies oxygen and other hospital necessities using World Health Organisation (WHO) cold chain data.
During the past couple of years, the company has distributed about 26,000 products to more than 10,000 patients in nearly 700 hospitals in Nigeria; Giwa-Tubosun’s effort is now celebrated at home and abroad as the benchmark of social entrepreneurship to meet a major societal need.
She has been featured in international media, including CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian and Newsweek. She has met some of the world’s richest persons, including Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, as well as Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg said that if she could make this work, her model will have a global impact. This US-educated entrepreneur is on a mission to curb the number of maternal deaths in her home country. An cash injection from Jack Ma has also rocketed LifeBank to further heights and success.
How LifeBank Started
LifeBank happened as a result of Giwa-Tubosun’s personal experience In February 2014 when she had a premature baby in a hospital in Minnesota in the United States. She describes the delivery process as “complicated and harrowing.” This led her to consider the plight of Nigerian women who do not have the benefit of overseas treatments.
“I knew how terrible I felt in the hospital bed, how it feels for other women in similar conditions. I decided I had to save lives,” she said in an interview with Africa Renewal, adding that she might have died of postpartum haemorrhage (blood loss) if she had the baby in Nigeria. “At that point, I knew I had to tackle this problem in my home country.”
Maternal Deaths in Nigeria
Eight out of 10 women who bleed to death while giving birth can be saved if blood is readily available. Nigeria accounts for nearly 20% of all global maternal deaths, according to the WHO. Between 2005 and 2015, it is estimated that over 600,000 maternal deaths and no less than 900,000 maternal near-miss cases occurred in the country.
The Nigerian National Blood Transfusion Service frequently raises alarm about the declining number of blood donors in the country. For example, in Lagos where LifeBank is headquartered, only 80,000 pints (43%) of the 185,000 pints of blood needed annually are collected.
LifeBank easily carved out its niche. Patients who need blood or hospitals, especially in rural areas, have no access to blood banks. LifeBank connects hospitals and patients, providing the right information on the type and safety of blood and oxygen and ensuring fast deliveries.
“Orders are a seamless process,” Giwa-Tubosun explains. Patients or doctors make orders through LifeBank’s website or app or simply by making a phone call to the company. The company then immediately contacts the blood bank nearest to the patient and the delivery operation is activated.
At times the blood is delivered on a motorbike through the snarling road traffic in densely populated cities such as Lagos. At other times it’s a drone dropping off the package and in in riverine areas, boats are used to ensure fast deliveries. LifeBank works with 100 blood banks across Nigeria and has a database of their inventories. Using Google Maps between locations of blood banks, delivery vehicles and hospitals, the best routes are calculated.
Giwa-Tubosun’s ambitious expansion plan is on course, thanks in part to the $250,000 first prize she was awarded in 2019 by the African Netpreneur Prize Initiative organised by the Jack Ma Foundation.
Currently operating in the Nigerian states of Lagos, Oyo, Kano, Rivers and the capital Abuja, Giwa-Tubosun hopes to soon move into other cities and towns in Nigeria’s northeast. She also has her sights set on other African countries. She has already partnered with the Information Network Security Agency of the Ethiopian government to test drones for picking up blood from blood banks and delivering it to hospitals. She is already delivering blood and oxygen to patients and hospitals in Kenya.
This feisty entrepreneur understands that this problem is of pandemic proportions across most of Africa and other developing countries and huge metropolises across the globe. ”There is a demand for critical supplies of blood and oxygen, at the right place at the right time,” Giwa-Tubosun says.
The Challenges of Following Her Dream
Despite sounding easy, all has not been smooth sailing for Giwa-Tubosun who continues to juggle managing a fast-growing business in a tough business environment and looking after her six-year-old child while being a wife. She cites the support of her family as the mainstay of her success.
Nigeria’s business environment is difficult and it is often stated that if anyone can establish a business in Lagos, it is possible to do it anywhere else. She has faced challenges with licensing, a vague regulatory environment, the lack of financing, poor infrastructure (water, roads, electricity), all typical of Africa. “Bad roads damage our vehicles. We have to have a standby generator for electricity,” Giwa-Tubosun explains.
However, she maintains that Nigeria has a lot of promise and that she has to do her part. This includes urging other entrepreneurs to take a risk, to engage in scalable, smart and efficient operations as the market is huge.
Do Nigerian businesswomen face other unique challenges? “Women doing uncommon things will always face challenges,” she says, “not only in Africa.” Africa has a strong patriarchal society. However, Giwa-Tubosun admits that she enjoys “doing hard things” and this ability has seen thousands of lives saved already.
