AMREF
Amref Health Africa is the largest African-led international health organization, founded in Kenya in 1957. It delivers health programs across 35 African countries, trains community health workers through LEAP and M-Jali mHealth platforms, and reaches over 11 million people annually via government partnerships and donor-funded projects.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1957
- HeadquartersNairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
- Headcount1,001–5,000
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingServices
What AMREF does
Amref Health Africa is the largest African-led international health organization, founded in Kenya in 1957 as the Flying Doctors of East Africa. It delivers health programs across 35 African countries through 150 active projects, reaching over 11 million people annually. Its work spans health systems strengthening, community health worker training, maternal and child health, non-communicable disease screening and management, outbreak prevention and response, and Universal Health Coverage advocacy.
Its core product portfolio, operated under Amref Enterprises Limited, consists of three interlinked mHealth platforms. LEAP is a mobile learning platform that enables community health workers to receive continued training, peer learning, supervision, and campaign updates on mobile devices, with over 3,000 community health volunteers trained and over 300,000 community members reached. M-Jali is a mobile application for community health workers to capture household-level health indicators and improve community-level health reporting. i-PUSH is a partnership initiative with PharmAccess that combines M-TIBA (healthcare financing), LEAP, and m-Jali to connect 100,000 women and families in Kenya to healthcare financing, quality, and knowledge. Adjacent operations include the Amref Medical Centre, Amref Flying Doctors, Amref International University, and the AHAIC Conference.
As a non-profit international development organization, Amref is funded through grants, donations, and cooperative agreements from international donors, governments, foundations, and the private sector, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, M-Pesa Foundation, Accenture, and Safaricom. It does not sell products commercially; its mHealth platforms are offered to governments, NGOs, and development partners as part of capacity-building efforts. Distribution is direct, via country offices and partnerships with national and county-level governments across sub-Saharan Africa, complemented by country fundraising offices in Europe and North America.
AMREF firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- AMREF
- Legal name
- Amref Health Africa
- Website
- https://amref.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1957
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1,001–5,000 employees
- Short description
- Amref Health Africa is the largest African-led international health organization, founded in Kenya in 1957. It delivers health programs across 35 African countries, trains community health workers through LEAP and M-Jali mHealth platforms, and reaches over 11 million people annually via government partnerships and donor-funded projects.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
AMREF industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Global Public Health Services
- NAICS
- Health Care and Social Assistance (62), Social Assistance (624), Ambulatory Health Care Services (621)
- SIC
- Services-Health Services (8000), Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Global Health Research, Evidence & Technical Assistance Organizations (HLAJAKAN)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Health Systems Strengthening & Global Health Technical Assistance (BPADAEAH), Maternal, Newborn, Child & Adolescent Health (MNCAH) NGOs (HLAJAKAG), Humanitarian Health Coordination & Emergency Response Partnerships (HLAJAOAI), Immunization & Vaccine Delivery Programs (BPADAIAB)
Keywords
Where AMREF is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Nairobi, Nairobi
- HQ country
- Kenya
- HQ region
- Africa
Offices8 records
Markets served
AMREF business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others
Revenue model
- Grants and Donations: As a non-profit international NGO, Amref Health Africa is primarily funded through grants, donations, and cooperative agreements from international donors, governments, foundations, and the private sector. Revenue supports health programs across sub-Saharan Africa.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels6 records
AMREF product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Amref Health Africa is a non-profit international NGO that delivers community-based health programs across 35 African countries. It partners with African governments and ministries of health to train community health workers, strengthen primary healthcare systems, run disease surveillance and outbreak response, and provide maternal, child, and non-communicable disease services. The organization also operates mHealth platforms (LEAP, M-Jali, i-PUSH) that enable training, household-level health data collection, and mobile healthcare financing integration.
Product overview
Amref Health Africa operates a platform-plus-products model through Amref Enterprises Limited, offering multiple mHealth solutions. The core products include LEAP (mobile learning platform for community health workers training), M-Jali (mobile application for household health data collection), i-PUSH (maternal health initiative combining mobile health financing with Leap and m-Jali), and Amref Medical Centre. These products work together to deliver health training, community health reporting, and healthcare access across Africa, with LEAP serving as the primary mHealth training platform, M-Jali enabling data-driven community health management, and i-PUSH integrating healthcare financing with these mobile solutions.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- LEAP: mHealth platform for training community health workers through mobile devices
- M-Jali
- i-PUSH
- Amref Enterprises Limited
Products and services
- LEAP (mHealth mobile learning platform) Mobile-based training platform that enables community health workers to access continued training through mobile devices, engage in peer learning, receive direct supervision, and access health updates and campaign messages.
- M-Jali (mobile health data application) Mobile application used by community health workers to capture data on household-level health indicators, improving efficiency of health reporting at the community level.
- i-PUSH (Integrated Programme for Sustainable Healthcare) Partnership initiative that leverages mobile technology to connect mothers and families to healthcare financing (M-TIBA), quality care, and knowledge while building community health worker capacity.
- Amref Medical Centre Medical center providing direct healthcare services as part of the Amref Health Africa enterprises portfolio.
- eLearning Programme for Nurses eLearning program that upskills nurses across Africa through digital learning, developed in partnership with Accenture and Kenya's Ministry of Health.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 11 million people reached annually across 35 countries
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use AMREF
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
AMREF technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
AMREF partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Royal PhilipscoreAmref Health Africa partnered with Royal Philips and Makueni County Government in July 2018 to explore a Public Private Partnership for enhancing the county's primary care system, combining public sector affordability with private sector innovation.
- PharmAccesscoreAmref Health Africa and PharmAccess joined forces in the i-PUSH partnership, combining M-TIBA, LEAP, and m-Jali to improve access to healthcare for 100,000 women and families in Kenya through mobile technology. i-PUSH was made possible by a grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery.
- M-Pesa FoundationcoreM-Pesa Foundation partnered with Amref Health Africa, Accenture, and Safaricom to develop the LEAP mHealth solution. The partnership focuses on revolutionising community health worker training through mobile technology across Kenya.
- AccenturecoreAccenture partnered with Amref Health Africa, M-Pesa Foundation, and Safaricom to develop the LEAP mobile learning platform for community health workers. Accenture also partnered with Amref and Kenya's Ministry of Health in 2005 to launch the eLearning programme that skilled up over 20,000 nurses.
- SafaricomcoreSafaricom partnered with Amref Health Africa, M-Pesa Foundation, and Accenture to develop and deploy the LEAP mHealth platform for community health worker training in Kenya.
- Kenya National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF)coreAmref Health Africa partnered with Kenya's NHIF to accelerate Universal Health Coverage by using Community Health Workers as agents for NHIF registration at community level, mobilising financial protection for underserved populations.
- Results for Development (R4D)coreAmref Health Africa was selected to host the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC), a new initiative aimed at strengthening strategic health purchasing in sub-Saharan Africa. SPARC is being launched by R4D in partnership with Amref, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Kenya Ministry of HealthcoreThe Kenya Ministry of Health partnered with Amref Health Africa on multiple initiatives including LEAP development, eLearning programme (since 2005), and various health programs including Ebola response and immunisation campaigns.
- aidTrainminorAmref Health Africa partnered with aidTrain, a global provider of compliance training, to offer tailored high-quality training opportunities to stakeholders and partners in the global development sector, advancing lasting organizational capacity in Africa.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights4 records
AMREF competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Last Mile Health: Last Mile Health designs and scales community health worker programs in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. It overlaps directly with Amref's LEAP platform and CHV training mission, serving similar patient populations in similar geographies.
- IntraHealth International: IntraHealth International focuses on health workforce development and digital health in low- and middle-income countries. It is comparable to Amref in its focus on training nurses and CHWs and works with similar ministries of health across Africa.
- Results for Development (R4D): R4D is a global health and education consultancy that partners with Amref to host SPARC. It is comparable as an organization working on strategic health purchasing, health financing, and health systems strengthening across Africa and other LMICs.
- Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI): CHAI works with governments in low- and middle-income countries to strengthen health systems and expand access to medicines and diagnostics. It is comparable to Amref as both organizations operate as embedded technical assistance partners to African ministries of health and serve as large global health implementers.
- PATH: PATH is a Seattle-based global health NGO that designs, implements, and scales health innovations across low- and middle-income countries. Like Amref, it operates a portfolio of country-level implementation programs alongside technology/digital health solutions, and competes for similar institutional donor funding.
- Partners In Health (PIH): PIH is a global health NGO delivering direct health services and training health workers in resource-constrained settings. It shares Amref's model of combining service delivery, health worker training, and government partnerships across multiple low-income countries.
- BRAC: BRAC is one of the largest development NGOs in the world, with significant health programming in Africa and Asia. Comparable to Amref as a large, developing-country–led NGO that combines service delivery, health worker training, and social enterprise models.
- Living Goods: Living Goods operates community health worker networks supported by digital tools in sub-Saharan Africa. Its tech-enabled CHW model competes directly with Amref's LEAP/M-Jali approach for both donor funding and government contracts.
- Riders for Health: Riders for Health is an African-rooted social enterprise that operates health logistics and community outreach programs. Like Amref's Flying Doctors subsidiary, it delivers last-mile health services using transportation-enabled models.
Broad incumbents
- Africa CDC: Africa CDC is the African Union's continental public health agency coordinating outbreak response and health system strengthening across member states. It is a comparable Africa-anchored institution that partners with and competes for the same donor and government relationships as Amref.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
AMREF social profiles
Digital presenceAMREF financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
AMREF leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
AMREF subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries5 records
AMREF funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
AMREF M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about AMREF
What does AMREF do?
Amref Health Africa is a non-profit international NGO that delivers community-based health programs across 35 African countries. It partners with African governments and ministries of health to train community health workers, strengthen primary healthcare systems, run disease surveillance and outbreak response, and provide maternal, child, and non-communicable disease services. The organization also operates mHealth platforms (LEAP, M-Jali, i-PUSH) that enable training, household-level health data collection, and mobile healthcare financing integration.
Is AMREF a public or private company?
AMREF is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was AMREF founded?
AMREF was founded in 1957. It employs 1,001 to 5,000 people.
Where is AMREF based?
AMREF is headquartered in Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, in the Africa region.
How does AMREF make money?
One revenue line is on record: grants and Donations.
Who are AMREF's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Last Mile Health, IntraHealth International, Results for Development (R4D), Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), PATH, Partners In Health (PIH), BRAC, Living Goods and Riders for Health. Africa CDC is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does AMREF have an API?
No public API is recorded for AMREF.
What industry is AMREF in?
AMREF's product category is Global Public Health Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAJAKAN, Global Health Research, Evidence & Technical Assistance Organizations, with a secondary code of BPADAEAH, Health Systems Strengthening & Global Health Technical Assistance. Its NAICS code is 62 and its SIC code is 8000.