Mamakiba is a patient-facing SMS savings calculator and prepayment tracking tool specifically designed to help low-income women save and prepay for their maternal health needs such as ante-natal care and clinical delivery. Many women struggle financially, and this application can help teach the value of budget planning and provide lifesaving care for women and their families.
Mamakiba addresses two particular areas of the customer’s financial planning needs in having a baby, which are establishing and maintaining a savings target for maternal healthcare costs and prepaying towards this target in a convenient way using Mpesa. The customer registers at the Jacaranda Health clinics during the first visit by opening an electronic medical record, which simultaneously registers her for Mamakiba should she wish to join. As part of the standard patient information data collection, she provides 1) her full name, 2) mobile phone number and 3) pregnancy term.
If she opts into Mamakiba, she also provides 4) her savings target, which is tied into the Jacaranda Health bundled services including the WHO recommended 4 ANC visits, lab tests, health counseling and normal delivery or emergency treatment 5) the amount she can deposit per period 6) the frequency of the deposit periods and 7) validation of an Mpesa account. If she does not own one, she could possibly activate the Mpesa account through the Jacaranda Health registration process or return later to opt into Mamakiba after registering with an Mpesa agent.