Nairobi is aiming to open a new medical oxygen production facility in the first quarter of 2025.
The facility is earmarked for the Tatu Industrial Zone within the 5,000-acre Tatu City Special Economic Zone.
Leading locally owned medical oxygen manufacturer Hewatele has secured $20 million funding from the US International Development Finance Corporation, Finnfund, Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), UBS Optimum Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada.
Hewatele will use the debt and equity funds raised to finance the building of a modern Cryogenic Medical Liquid Oxygen Air Separation Unit plant at the industrial park.
The facility will be the first modern liquid oxygen manufacturing plant located in East Africa in the last 60 years and help fill the escalating demand for medical-grade liquid oxygen in healthcare facilities across Kenya, Uganda and Northern Tanzania.
Dr. Bernard Olayo, Founder of Hewatele, said: “This medical oxygen plant represents a significant leap in ensuring sustainable and affordable access to medicinal oxygen. The increased production capacity here at Tatu City will improve oxygen affordability, particularly for maternal and child healthcare, and enhance primary healthcare support.”
David Karimi, Deputy Country Head, Kenya, at Rendeavour, the owner and developer of Tatu City, said, “Hewatele’s investment, backed by the world’s preeminent development finance institutions and foundations, represents a transformation of healthcare in Kenya and across East Africa.”
The plant will cater for rising medical oxygen demand, which has doubled to 880 tonnes per month according to the Kenya Ministry of Health, and help address persistent shortages – which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Hewatele has stepped in to solve the failures of the medical oxygen industry, dominated in East Africa by foreign suppliers,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, Executive Director of Open Society-Africa.
“Oxygen in hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa is about five times more expensive by volume than it is in Europe and the United States. Building local production capacity will help solve this inequality and save lives.”
Reasons for oxygen scarcity are varied and complex. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the medical oxygen market is dominated by liquid oxygen (LOX) providers in capital cities.
Owing to the high capital costs to build a LOX plant, there are few LOX competitors, and some providers have exhibited “monopolistic tendencies,” according to The National Library of Medicine.
