Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union's specialised agency for public health, has announced the appointment of Mahamadi Rouamba, Chief Executive Officer of TICANALYSE, to the Primary Health Care Digitalization Experts Committee (PHC-DEC).
This committee brings together 28 experts from several regions of the world, mobilised to support African states in the digital transformation of primary healthcare.
A strategic committee to accelerate the digitalisation of healthcare in Africa
Created as part of Africa CDC's 2023–2027 strategy, the PHC-DEC's role is to define priorities for the digitalisation of primary health care and to review the tools, frameworks and technical guides available to Member States. It also works to improve coordination between countries, regional institutions and technical partners, and is involved in the development of the PHC Digitalisation Toolkit, a set of operational tools designed to support countries in implementing their digital initiatives.
Through this committee, Africa CDC aims to strengthen the resilience of health systems, improve health equity and bring services closer to populations through digital solutions adapted to the realities on the ground.
An appointment backed by more than a decade of innovation with mHealth
Mahamadi Rouamba's appointment is based on his extensive experience in healthcare digitisation in West Africa. Under his leadership, TICANALYSE has gradually designed and deployed the mHealth platform in several countries. The process began in 2016 with the digitisation of community health data in Burkina Faso, then expanded to Niger in 2019. In 2022, TICANALYSE introduced a digital financial management solution for Health and Social Promotion Centres and Medical Centres with Surgical Units in Burkina Faso. Since 2024, Côte d'Ivoire has also been using mHealth to digitise its community health data.
These advances have contributed to TICANALYSE's international recognition. In 2019, the company received the Pierre Fabre Foundation Prize awarded by the Observatory of e-Health in Southern Countries, and in 2024, it was awarded the distinction of being the leading innovation in Niger.. Today, mHealth has established itself as an integrated platform for digitising primary healthcare provision, widely used at community level.
mHealth: a solution designed for the field, tailored for Africa
Designed to operate without an internet connection, mHealth reliably delivers a comprehensive package of preventive and curative care for pregnant women, mothers, newborns and children under five. The platform assigns a unique identifier to each patient, facilitates the tracking of their journey through the healthcare system and ensures better management of input availability. It also helps to identify zero-dose children and patients who have been lost to follow-up, and to strengthen reproductive health activities, epidemic surveillance and chronic disease monitoring.
Thanks to its architecture, mHealth enables data transmission and reception even without an internet connection. It is interoperable with national platforms such as DHIS2 and incorporates an artificial intelligence-based health intelligence centre. This combination provides decision-makers with a clear overview of primary healthcare performance and enables them to identify areas with insufficient coverage in order to allocate resources more effectively.
"It is a responsibility towards the continent" — Mahamadi Rouamba
For Mahamadi Rouamba, this appointment represents above all an opportunity to contribute to a continental vision of digital transformation. According to him, the challenge is to bring together the experiences of different countries, local innovations and the needs of communities to build a coherent and sustainable approach to the digitisation of primary healthcare in Africa. He emphasises that digital technology must above all simplify the work of teams in the field and strengthen their impact.
Recognition for Burkina Faso and local innovation
This appointment highlights Burkina Faso's growing role in the field of digital health in Africa. It also demonstrates the capacity of locally developed solutions, such as mHealth, to influence continental strategic directions. In addition, Mahamadi Rouamba also chairs the WAEMU's digital financial services API standardisation committee and was recently commended for his contribution to the BCEAO's interoperable instant payment platform (PI-SPI).
With his appointment to the PHC Digitalisation Experts Committee, Mahamadi Rouamba joins the ranks of those shaping the future of digital health in Africa. mHealth, a solution developed in Burkina Faso, is now establishing itself as a strategic tool enabling African countries to effectively digitalise primary healthcare provision, even in the most challenging contexts.
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