By Dr.Tuwilika Nafuka and Dr. Kieva Chris-Amusan
What does it take to turn a youth-led health idea into a continent-shifting innovation? For many of us across Africa, the missing link isn’t passion or potential, it’s structured, intentional support.
That’s why the Africa CDC Youth in Digital Health Network (YiDHN) mHealth and Mobile App Development Bootcamp, held in Accra, Ghana in July 2025, couldn’t have come at a better time.
This wasn’t just a training, it was a platform, a proving ground, and a call to action.
Across Africa, young innovators are designing health solutions rooted in lived experience. But turning great ideas into real impact takes more than passion.
It takes technical training, mentorship, networks, and systems that understand the nuance of building for this continent. The bootcamp created that kind of space, a space for reflection, connection, and capacity-building.
Over five intensive days, 28 digital health innovators explored everything from data privacy and API integration to AI-powered health tools, app testing, and investment readiness.
The curriculum was holistic, blending technical knowledge with adaptive leadership, business modeling, and live pitching. Importantly, it centered the real challenges we face when building for young people in low-resource, high-need contexts.
As two participants navigating digital health ventures at different stages, we’ve come together to reflect on what this program offered and why it matters for the future of health innovation in Africa.
For me, as Dr. Tuwilika Nafuka, co-founder of TupaBloom Care, a social enterprise focusing on advocacy, research, and digital health innovation in Namibia, the sessions on leadership, monetization, and investment readiness were particularly impactful.
I was already building a solution, but the bootcamp helped me see how to structure it for sustainability and position it for scale across Africa.
Meeting facilitators like Stephanie Okpere (Design for Health by CcHub) and Carine Kalinda (Villgro Africa), both women deeply embedded in digital health and investment spaces, was affirming.
It was also deeply meaningful to see African women leading these sessions, a powerful signal to young women innovators across the continent.
The technical sessions, from app testing with Firebase and Appium to GitHub workflows and deployment strategies, gave practical skills that many youth innovators often lack access to.
But it was Pitch Day that truly brought everything together. Each team showed up with bold, locally grounded solutions. My project, TupaBloom Care, pitched a dual digital platform combining chatbots, gamified learning, and assessment tools to tackle Namibia’s high rates of teenage pregnancy, SGBV, and youth suicide.
Seeing so many others building with the same heart and urgency made it clear:
Africa’s youth are not waiting, we are already leading.
As Dr. Kieva Chris-Amusan, founder of Fertitude, a digital platform that helps women access discreet, 24/7 reproductive health support, I came into the YiDHN Bootcamp with the goal of deepening my technical and strategic understanding of mHealth systems in the African context.
Fertitude’s mobile app is available on Google and Apple stores, serving over 5,000 users across Nigeria, 10 other African countries, and the diaspora. While we’ve seen strong early traction, I knew there were still gaps to close in order to scale more responsibly and inclusively.
The bootcamp offered more than I expected. Sessions on data protection, product testing, and interoperability reshaped how I think about growth, especially across diverse systems and user realities.
I now see more clearly how regulation, infrastructure, and cultural context must guide product design for last-mile users. What stood out most, besides winning the award for Best Business Model, was the network.
Meeting builders from across the continent reminded me I’m not alone in the complexities of health innovation. I’m leaving with an expanded mindset on what it truly takes to scale across Africa. To every young builder out there: keep showing up. Africa needs what you carry.
One of the bootcamp’s most powerful features was its commitment to inclusion. Women weren’t just participants, they led core sessions and shaped the learning environment.
The program also meaningfully included participants with disabilities, such as Abiola Joseph from the Diversity Innovation Initiative in Uganda, a Deaf finalist and winner building an SRHR app for Deaf youth, a community he’s part of.
These decisions weren’t symbolic, they reflected a future of digital health that is accessible, diverse, and truly African.
This bootcamp offered something most funding cycles and global programs don’t: a safe space for peer learning, regional exchange, and practical growth.
It provided the kind of mentorship and exposure that every young digital health innovator should have access to, regardless of where they live or what language they speak.
We hope to see more programs like this across the continent, and more follow-through with alumni networks, mentorship opportunities, and technical incubation tailored to Africa’s realities.
We’re grateful to the Africa CDC, GIZ Office to the African Union, representatives from the Africa CDC Youth Programme, expert partners, funders, investors, trainers from leading tech hubs, and government officials for making this bootcamp a reality, and to the facilitators and mentors who shared not just their knowledge, but their belief in the next generation of African digital health leaders.
*Dr.Tuwilika Nafuka is a Medical Doctor, MSc in Digital Health candidate, Africa CDC Bingwa PLUS and DHSA fellow, and a champion for digital health transformation. She is passionate about harnessing technology to advance health equity and strengthen community access to essential services across Namibia and beyond.
Dr. Kieva Chris-Amusan is the Co-founder & CEO of Fertitude, a digital platform that provides women with 24/7 stigma-free access to reproductive health products and services.
