Ibukun Adebajo

Nigerian healthcare innovator who revolutionized maternal health in West Africa

Ibukun Adebajo (b. 1975) is a Nigerian physician and entrepreneur whose Mamacare initiative has saved over 100,000 mothers' lives through mobile health innovations. After training at Harvard Medical School, she returned to Nigeria in 2003 to address the country's alarming maternal mortality rate. Her breakthrough came with the development of the Mobile Midwife app (2007), which provides real-time pregnancy monitoring via SMS for areas without internet. This system now serves 1.2 million women across 8 countries.

Adebajo's 2010 Lancet-published study demonstrated a 62% reduction in postpartum complications among users. Her Telehealth for Mothers program (2015) established the first continent-wide network of mobile birthing centers, featured in Nature Magazine. In 2021, she launched the African Maternal Health Fund, raising $50 million to expand access to emergency obstetric care.

Her advocacy led to Nigeria's 2018 Maternal Health Act, mandating telemedicine integration in public health systems. Adebajo's TEDx talk 'Texting for Life' has over 3 million views. She was named Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential in 2022. Her work forms the basis of WHO's MHealth Guidelines for Developing Regions (2020).