Yetunde Ayo-Oyalowo of Market Doctors: Taking Healthcare out of the Ivory Tower

The Africa Health Ventures Podcast

Yetunde Ayo-Oyalowo founded Market Doctors based on the idea of bringing healthcare to people where they live and work. Market Doctors is a social enterprise that deploys doctors and other health workers outside of health institutions and in the public markets of Nigeria. Here they provide healthcare without disrupting the economic activities of communities living on the margins. Market Doctors is challenging assumptions about what healthcare is and where it can be found.

The idea was born when Yetunde was volunteering for her church to raise health awareness in the community. Trained as a doctor, she was able to counsel, diagnose, and treat people in public spaces outside of the traditional hospital setting. A born entrepreneur, she saw an opportunity in the markets where people are already congregating and looking for health advice - and where traditional medical institutions seemed too expensive, too distant, and too inaccessible. So, she pulled up a chair and got to work.

Yetunde is a doctor, an entrepreneur, a Nigerian, a woman, and a mother. When the international nonprofit community wasn't initially receptive to her idea, she went a different route. She turned to faith-based organizations and corporate partners for support. She forged partnerships with banks, pharmaceuticals, and other large corporations to leverage their funds to serve community needs. Today Market Doctors employs 50 people serving 9 states in Nigeria.

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