SFH Launches CoElevate Catalytic Fund to Power Nigeria’s Next Generation of Health  Innovators 

The quest to transform Nigeria’s health innovation landscape gained new momentum on Thursday as the Society for Family Health (SFH), through its enterprise arm, SFH Access, officially launched the CoElevate Catalytic Fund, a mechanism designed to accelerate homegrown solutions in HealthTech, WASH, Pharmaceutical R&D, and Non-Communicable Diseases. 

The event, held at SFH’s Lagos office, attracted innovators, policymakers, funders, and development partners united by a shared goal: strengthening Nigeria’s health system through innovation.

Speaking at the launch, Managing Director of SFH Access, Pharm. Dennis Aizobu, described the initiative as “the beginning of a new chapter in West Africa’s innovation history,” noting that brilliant ideas in Nigeria often fail not due to lack of competence but because innovators lack exposure, capital, systems, and support. He said CoElevate was intentionally designed to close these gaps.

Aizobu stressed that no health system can thrive without continuous innovation, adding that the new fund provides “access to mentorship, access to support, access to capital, and access to platforms that will ensure scale.” He said SFH Access was investing in the next generation of solution providers tackling urgent challenges in digital health, WASH innovations, emerging infectious diseases, and non-communicable diseases.

He further highlighted that the catalytic fund combines grants, mentorship, and access to SFH’s vast 40-year infrastructure, emphasizing that “Africans must invest in Africa.” Aizobu also announced that CoElevate will run two funding streams annually, offering multiple opportunities for startups to plug into an ecosystem deliberately built for long-term success.

Chairperson of SFH Access Board of Directors, Pharm. Ahmed Yakasai, described the launch as a landmark step toward strengthening equitable access to healthcare and empowering the next generation of innovators. He said the initiative reflects SFH’s consistent commitment to the vulnerable and to creating opportunities for young Nigerians determined to build solutions for national development.

Yakasai emphasized that innovation remains essential in addressing the continent’s complex health challenges. He applauded the CoElevate platform for identifying, nurturing, and propelling homegrown solutions, noting that targeted investment and strategic partnerships are crucial to transforming communities and health systems.

He commended the SFH Access advisory team and stakeholders for their dedication to creating a mechanism capable of shaping Nigeria’s innovation future, describing the launch as “a stepping stone toward a healthier, more innovative, and more resilient society.”

Also speaking, the Managing Director of SFH, Dr. Omokhudu Idogho, outlined the extensive infrastructure the organisation has built across its technology, logistics, supply-chain, regulatory, and brand-development systems; assets he said are now available to innovators under the CoElevate programme. 

He noted that SFH operates on Microsoft Azure, collaborates with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and has a long-standing record in developing APIs, digital solutions, and health-tech tools. On the supply-chain side, he highlighted SFH’s 7,000-square-meter pharmagrade warehouse, 22 satellite warehouses and nationwide logistics network capable of moving health products from Lagos “to anywhere in Nigeria.”

Idogho also said SFH has decades of credibility in regulation, product development, and brand growth; competencies that would cost startups billions of naira to replicate. He explained that SFH’s partnerships with major local and international Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMOs) could rapidly take any research and development outcome to scale.

According to him, while funding is important, what SFH brings to innovators is far more valuable: tested systems, market access, regulatory experience, and a nationwide distribution capability that can push innovative products and technologies to communities where they are most needed.

Speaking on what success will look like in the next five years, Idogho said the true measure of impact should be tied to Nigeria’s major health challenges, particularly maternal mortality and low immunisation coverage. He noted that despite the presence of life-saving technologies for decades, Nigeria still records preventable deaths during childbirth and maintains one of the world’s lowest immunisation rates. Idogho said CoElevate is meant to catalyse homegrown solutions that respond to real community needs, not theoretical ones. 

He stressed that if innovations supported by the fund help reduce maternal deaths, strengthen immunisation, and improve access to essential health services, then SFH would have succeeded in redefining Nigeria’s health innovation landscape.

Representing the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Director of Disease Control, Dr. Victoria Egunjobi, praised SFH for decades of impactful work and for introducing a catalytic fund at a time when innovators struggle with limited opportunities. She said innovation drives progress in every functional health system but remains expensive and often difficult without enabling structures.

Egunjobi noted that the CoElevate Catalytic Fund will help ensure that homegrown ideas, whether in diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, behavioral change, or system-strengthening, can be nurtured and scaled. She added that Nigeria’s next breakthrough in public health innovations might emerge from any state if the right support mechanisms exist.

She called for sustained collaboration and partnerships to keep the fund thriving, adding that the Lagos State Government looks forward to the solutions that beneficiaries will develop as the state pushes toward universal access to healthcare.

In her remarks, Deputy Managing Director of Strategy, Technical and Growth at the Society for Family Health (SFH), Dr. Jennifer Anyanti, said the CoElevate Catalytic Fund was deliberately created without a rigid ceiling because SFH has mastered the art of raising capital to support high-impact ideas. She explained that many brilliant concepts struggle not because they lack potential but because entrepreneurs often misunderstand the infrastructure required to execute their ideas. Anyanti stressed that once an idea is sound, properly designed, and positioned for impact, “the funding will always find its way,” adding that SFH has repeatedly mobilised donors and partners to support promising innovations.

Anyanti emphasized that SFH’s 43-year experience in partnerships and collaboration remains one of the organisation’s greatest strengths. She noted that many young innovators rely solely on proposal submissions, which often get buried on the desks of overburdened government officials. She said the CoElevate accelerator provides a bridge by identifying viable ideas, nurturing them, and guiding innovators to the right government agencies, institutions, and funders. Beyond funding, she said the programme offers mentorship, reviews proposals, helps refine concepts, and positions innovators to succeed within Nigeria’s complex operating environment.

She added that the initiative aims to correct long-standing structural gaps in Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem, especially in life sciences where support mechanisms remain weak compared to sectors like fintech. Anyanti said CoElevate will create a ripple effect by building innovators who will, in turn, build others, strengthening the entire ecosystem over time. 

She noted that the platform will provide technical guidance, sector-specific mentorship, systems exposure, and strategic networks required to unlock the potential of young people determined to solve Africa’s biggest health challenges.