KIGALI — Across Africa, governments have spent years testing digital tools meant to make healthcare faster, cheaper and more accessible. The harder task has been turning those experiments into systems that can serve entire populations.
That challenge is at the centre of a health technology summit that opened in Kigali on Wednesday, bringing together African health ministers, technology companies, investors and public health specialists.
The five-day Africa HealthTech Summit, which runs through Oct. 2, is focused this year on how countries can move beyond isolated digital projects and build health systems around reliable data, connected infrastructure and technology that can be used at national scale.
The shift comes as technology is rapidly changing the way healthcare is delivered. Artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure and data systems are increasingly being used to plan services and support decisions.
But technology alone does not solve the basic problems facing many health systems.
Digital platforms need to work with one another. Data needs to be reliable. Health workers need to be trained to use new systems. Governments need financing and procurement systems that allow successful projects to expand.
Those questions are reflected in the summit’s theme: “Wellness for All, Powered by Intelligent Health Systems.”
The organisers describe an “intelligent health system” as one built around trusted information, interoperable infrastructure and accountable decision-making tools.
The emphasis is also shifting from treating illness to preventing it.
The summit’s programme puts primary healthcare, nutrition, physical activity and mental health alongside digital technology. It also focuses on sexual and reproductive health and the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases.
For African countries, prevention has become increasingly important as populations grow and health systems face competing demands.
Africa is home to about 1.4 billion people, according to the summit organisers, and is expected to account for about a quarter of the world’s population by 2050.
The question is whether countries can build systems capable of keeping pace.
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the summit was intended to help turn policy decisions into functioning health infrastructure.
“This convening turns policy intention into deployed health infrastructure, that is rare, and Africa needs more of it,” he said.
The summit’s four main areas of discussion are preventive health and wellness, primary healthcare, sexual and reproductive health, and noncommunicable diseases and mental health.
Participants are also expected to examine how governments can move successful health technology projects into public systems.
That includes questions of investment. The organisers want financing for health innovation to be tied more closely to evidence, procurement and measurable results rather than simply the creation of new technology.
The Kigali meeting is the fifth edition of the summit, which began in 2022.
The event has grown from more than 800 delegates from 45 countries in its first year to 2,601 delegates from 65 countries in 2025. Last year’s meeting brought together representatives from 1,311 organisations and featured 262 speakers.
The growth mirrors the expanding ambitions of the meeting.
The early editions focused heavily on digital transformation and community health. The agenda has since expanded to artificial intelligence, interoperability, investment and the challenge of taking innovations to scale.
This year’s summit is organised by DALA Africa with Africa CDC, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health and other continental and international institutions.
Among those attending are Rwanda’s State Health Minister Dr Yvan Butera , Uganda’s Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi, Angola’s Health Minister Sílvia Paula Valentim Lutucuta and Rwanda’s Minister of ICT and Innovation Paula Ingabire.
The summit also includes a Wellness Discovery Village, where organisers are presenting activities around nutrition, movement, mental resilience and healthy environments.
But the central issue remains less about showcasing new technology than making existing innovations work at scale.
For governments across Africa, the next stage of the digital-health transition may depend not on how many new tools are developed, but on whether those tools can become part of health systems that people already rely on.
