My Journey as Co-Founder and Managing Director of Africa Health Business

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My Journey as Co-Founder and Managing Director of Africa Health Business

My name is Marloes Kibacha. Marloes is Dutch, reflecting where I come from; Kibacha is my married name, which I took after marrying my Tanzanian husband. In 2012, I quit my job in the Netherlands, sold most of my belongings and moved to Kenya to be with my then boyfriend (now husband)—with no job, no offer, just a bit of savings, and a strong desire to build a career and live a life that made a difference.

Before moving, I had worked at the Investment Fund for Health in Africa (IFHA), a private equity fund focused on healthcare businesses across the continent. That experience gave me an insider’s view of how sustainable investment could transform Africa’s health sector. But landing in Nairobi, I quickly realized that being young, relatively inexperienced, and in need of a (costly and bureaucratic) work permit made the odds of employment slim. Some people had promised internships, but as soon as I arrived, I was ghosted.

The LinkedIn Move That Changed Everything

Still, I tried. I changed my LinkedIn title to “Looking for a suitable job in Nairobi”. Within a week, I was contacted by Dr Amit N. Thakker ,EBS, though I had no idea who he was at the time. We arranged to meet at a public health event at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi, organized by a European Development Agency.

Inside, Amit didn’t ask me for my CV, grades, or credentials. Instead, he asked about my motivation for moving to Kenya and tested my thinking with ethical questions. One I still remember: “Imagine you are a doctor and you have a male patient who is HIV-positive. The next day, his wife comes to complain about her husband. From her story, you realize she doesn’t know his status. What do you do?” These questions made me realize he was less interested in what I had done and more interested in how I thought.

Volunteering My Way to Partnership

At the time, Amit was winding down his responsibilities at Avenue Healthcare and did independent consulting work. I volunteered to help him—taking notes in meetings, preparing summaries, doing background research. Since I didn’t have enough years of experience to be assigned projects on my own, I suggested a partnership: whenever I saw an opportunity that matched his expertise, I’d draft the response, and if he won, I would provide back-office support. He would be the “front office,” I the “back office.” This arrangement worked, and we began building a structured working relationship.

Uniting East Africa’s Health Leaders

By 2014, under the Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF) , we were organizing the East Africa Healthcare Federation (EAHF) Conference in Nairobi with Nishit Shah. Amit brought the networks and high-level content, Nishit managed the financial numbers and the design, and I oversaw the organization and management to ensure the event ran smoothly. It was a success, leading us to organize the 2015 edition in Kigali. At that event, West African participants asked: “Why only East Africa?” That question sparked something bigger. We enjoyed working together, our skills complemented each other, and we realized there was a gap: Why not create a platform that brought together private, public and development health leaders from across Africa to discuss strengthened collaboration and action with he private health sector. ? So we did…

The Birth of Africa Health Business (AHB)

That idea became the Africa Health Business Symposium (AHB Symposium) and in order to move it we registered the company Africa Health Business Limited (AHB) in 2015 in Kenya. . At first, we didn’t pay ourselves; we invested time pro-bono, testing whether the concept would work. In 2016, we launched the first AHB Symposium in Nairobi.

To our surprise and relief, it was a success, attracting global and African partners, visionary speakers, and committed sponsors. With a small surplus from sponsorships, I was able to become AHB’s second full-time employee (following an administrator) in January 2017. As Operations Director, tasked with scaling us from a single-event platform into a proper healthcare management, advisory, and consulting firm.

Scaling Across Africa

From then on, AHB began to grow supporting governments, donors, and private sector partners across more than 30 African countries. We moved beyond event organization and also scaled up our technical consulting work and team. In 2020, we matured to such a level that we had different departments and teams which resulted in me taking up the responsibilities as Managing Director. Over the years, I have seen firsthand how our work strengthens health systems and creates opportunities for African-led solutions that improve and safe lives and livelihoods.

Confronting Double Standards in Global Health

Of course, the journey hasn’t always been smooth and we had to adjust to changes and constantly innovate. There were times we submitted the strongest technical and financial bids—sometimes even at a quarter of the cost of global firms—only to be rejected because Western decision-makers doubted whether an African company could deliver. Ironically, those same global firms sometimes subcontracted us later, because the “local insights” required were beyond their reach. Frustrating as these experiences were, they only reinforced why AHB had to exist: To prove that Africa’s knowledge and expertise are not only valid but essential when strengthening health systems on the continent.

A Personal Transformation

For me, co-founding AHB has been transformative both professionally as personally. It taught me to be resourceful, confident, and resilient. It deepened my respect for African innovation, resilience and its great people. Too often, Africa is seen as a place to “help” rather than a place to learn and benefit from. In global health, foreign consultants still fly in and out, telling us here in Africa what to do, how to do it, and for how much—yet nobody would imagine sending African consultants to the Netherlands to design its health system…. This double standard still motivates me to continue to strengthen AHB as a credible, trustworthy and valuable pan-African-rooted institution.

Why AHB Matters in the Age of AI

This commitment is especially critical in the age of ChatGPT and AI. Our firm offers services and insights that cannot be derived from generalized online data sources and our networks and relationships cannot be found or created via a simple Google search. Africa’s healthcare data remains scattered, incomplete, and highly contextual. It requires local healthcare experts to make sense of it—and to guide partners on how best to shape, enter, scale, or pivot initiatives, products, and programs. What sets AHB apart is not only our private sector lens, but also our deep cultural, and local expertise, strong relationships and our understanding of healthcare-seeking behavior and provision in African contexts. This ensures that our insights and advice is not only technically sound but also resonates with how communities access, trust, and use health services. The only prerogatives to obtain true impact.

Investing in Africa for Africa

Today, AHB stands as a testament to what is possible when you invest in Africa’s people and processes. We deliberately build teams, systems, and knowledge that last—unlike ad-hoc consultancies that form around specific opportunities and dissolve afterward. As a private entity, we choose to invest in Africa, employ its people, pay taxes, and walk the talk – towards prosperity that moves from donorship to ownership. Our mission remains clear: to reshape the image of Africa from a continent in need of external help to one that provides world-class insights, solutions, and leadership in Africa’s healthcare systems and one that ensures that every person on our continent has access to quality, affordable and equitable healthcare.

A Legacy in the Making

As Co-Founder, I am proud that AHB has become part of this change—an institution that is truly “in Africa, by Africa, for Africa.” My hope is that the foundations we are building today will not only strengthen health systems now, but also benefit future generations—my children and grandchildren included—as they grow up, invest in, and continue to value this beautiful African continent we call home.