Nigerian telemedicine expert Funmi Adewara recognised with World Bank SDG award

NIGERIAN health campaigner Dr Funmi Adewara has been given a sustainable development goal (SDG) award by the World Bank in recognition of her unrelenting work in the field of telemedicine.

Based in the UK, Dr Adewara is the founder of Mobihealth International, a company that offers health advice to Nigerians from the diaspora. Mobihealth is Africa's first fully integrated telehealth start-up, leveraging technology in harnessing diaspora and local doctors and medical service providers through a secure electronic medical record and video software.

Dr Adewara and six others were given the World Bank  SDG awards earlier this week in recognition of their work. According to the World bank, Dr Adewara is one of the seven women entrepreneurs who will be rewarded for their various roles in facilitating the realisation of the SDGs.

A Nigerian medical doctor, Dr Adewara was selected in this year’s edition of the global SDGs Her Competition for her illustrious work in promoting the access to healthcare for the world’s population. The competition, founded by the World Bank Group and its partners including the United Nations Development Programme and the UN Women and the Wharton School Zicklin Centre, showcase women entrepreneurs who support SDGs through their business operations.

Jill Wilkins, the director of partnerships and practice groups at the World Bank, said: “The competition provides an opportunity to showcase women-led businesses that are not only supporting goals in health, food security, education, climate change, gender equality and industry but also demonstrating resilience as they respond to the challenges of Covid-19.”

Dr Adewara expressed delight at being selected for the global award and said that it will fire her zeal in working to see that more and more people have access to healthcare irrespective of who they are. She added: “I feel highly honoured for this coveted award and I thank the organisers of the competition for this huge recognition of what we do with our healthcare platform.

"Our work at Mobihealth International is predicated on our belief that an improved access to healthcare will bring about accelerated development for the people of the world. This is why we work to remove as much barriers to healthcare as possible. This award is a motivation to do more to see that people who need quality medical attention receive same irrespective of their race, gender, social status or financial standing.”

The 2020 edition of the World Bank’s Global SDGs and Her Competition saw six other women entrepreneurs win in the various categories of the award. These inspirational women were selected from a pool of 2,400 applicants from around the world who took part in the competition.

This year's award ceremony will be held on the margins of the 75th United Nations General Assembly in New York City on 30 September, 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the event is likely to be virtual.