By Thomson Reuters Foundation
Ethical business is growing in the developing world, as ambitious young people seek alternative ways to provide social and environmental services that have been neglected by cash-strapped or inefficient governments.
Cameroon, one of central Africa’s largest economies, does not have a national blood bank and medics usually insist families provide two donors before treating a patient.
With Infiuss, hospital staff or patients can call or text to have the right type of blood delivered from 23 private hospitals across Cameroon. More than 2,000 bags have been dispatched, usually by motorcycle, since 2017.
Bime won $100,000 in 2018 as the African laureate of the Cartier Women’s Initiative, which supports women entrepreneurs, and used the money to build her own Yaounde clinic.
But she could not get a permit from the ministry of health for Infiuss to operate in government hospitals, despite having dozens of meetings, including with the prime minister.
