The tragic reality for many technology innovators is discovering that a brilliant solution to a pressing problem can fail spectacularly if it ignores the fundamental economic constraints of its target market. This was the stark lesson for Nigerian health-tech firm MyItura, whose journey from a sophisticated data platform to a basic financial service offers a powerful case study in market adaptation. The company’s evolution reveals a critical truth for emerging economies: before you can build a digital health infrastructure, you may first need to build the financial infrastructure that allows people to access care in the first place. MyItura’s story is not just about a strategic pivot; it is a profound insight into the real barriers hindering healthcare access and a blueprint for solving the right problem for the right customer, even if it is not the problem you initially set out to fix.
A Personal Tragedy and a Mission to Fix a Broken System
The impetus behind MyItura was not born in a boardroom but from a place of deep personal loss. Founder Shina Arogundade watched his father’s health decline rapidly in 2022 following the departure of his long-term physician of 17 years. His father, who had managed chronic hypertension successfully for years, was subjected to a new treatment plan by doctors who had no access to his comprehensive medical history. Arogundade attributes his father’s preventable death to the fragmented nature of Nigeria’s healthcare system, where patient records exist in isolated silos, preventing continuity of care. This systemic failure can lead to redundant tests, conflicting prescriptions, and fatal errors, a danger he saw mirrored in other cases, such as a diabetic patient whose medication was dangerously altered by an uninformed doctor.
Fueled by this conviction, Arogundade launched MyItura in early 2023 with a clear and ambitious vision: to create a unified Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system. This platform was designed to break down the data silos between hospitals, laboratories, and pharmacies. The goal was to create a seamless network where patient information could be shared securely, empowering physicians with the complete context needed for accurate diagnoses and giving patients unprecedented ownership and control over their own health journeys. The mission was straightforward and noble—to use technology to prevent the kind of information gap that had cost his father his life.
The Billion-Dollar Problem with a Zero-Dollar Budget
MyItura’s proposed solution targeted a well-documented, multi-billion-dollar problem. The lack of interoperability in Nigerian healthcare is not merely an inconvenience; it is a direct threat to public health. When a patient moves between facilities, their history is often lost, forcing each new doctor to start from scratch. This leads to a cycle of inefficiency and risk, where critical information about allergies, chronic conditions, and past treatments is unavailable at the point of care. The system’s fragmentation places an enormous burden on both patients, who must recount their medical histories repeatedly, and providers, who are forced to make decisions with incomplete data.
Despite the obvious severity of the problem, the company’s vision quickly collided with the harsh economic realities of the market. Through initial customer interviews and testing, the MyItura team uncovered a critical flaw in their business model. While hospital administrators and doctors acknowledged the urgent need for a unified EMR system, they were unwilling or, more often, unable to pay for it. The issue was not a competitive desire to hoard patient data but a simple lack of capital. Most healthcare facilities operate on thin margins and could not justify the expenditure for a tool they perceived as an expensive administrative luxury rather than an essential service, leaving MyItura with a solution for a market that had no budget.
The Uncomfortable Truth of Solving for the Wrong Customer
The initial pitch for the EMR platform was met with a consistent and firm refusal. Beyond the primary financial barrier, a significant cultural obstacle emerged. Senior physicians, the key decision-makers in most hospitals, were deeply entrenched in traditional, paper-based record-keeping. The prospect of transitioning to a digital system that required typing notes and navigating new software was met with resistance and skepticism. While younger, more tech-savvy doctors were receptive, they lacked the authority to drive procurement. MyItura found itself in a classic startup dilemmit had correctly identified a systemic problem but had targeted a customer segment—the hospitals—that had neither the financial capacity nor the internal will to adopt the solution.
Faced with this clear market rejection, the company executed its first strategic pivot. If hospitals would not pay to digitize records, MyItura would capture them indirectly by providing other valuable services for free. This led to the development of a suite of accessibility tools, including telemedicine APIs for other startups, a virtual consultation platform for hospitals without their own websites, and a marketplace for booking at-home lab tests. A cornerstone of this strategy was an innovative AI transcription service that could listen to doctor-patient consultations, generate summaries for medical notes, and provide simplified explanations for patients. This approach began to generate traction, onboarding providers and patients alike. Yet, it soon exposed a deeper, more persistent bottleneck: the volume of data remained low because a huge portion of the population could not afford the underlying healthcare services in the first place.
A Founder’s Toothache and a Strategic Epiphany
The final, transformative insight came not from market data but from the founder’s own painful, lived experience. Years earlier, Arogundade had needed a surgical tooth extraction costing ₦120,000 (approximately $82). His insurance covered only a fraction of the cost, leaving a gap he could not immediately fill. Despite being employed and insured, he was forced to endure excruciating pain for nearly six months while he struggled to save the required funds. This personal ordeal provided a visceral understanding of a fundamental truth: financial barriers do not just delay care; they often prevent it entirely, with potentially catastrophic consequences for an individual’s health.
This personal memory crystalized into a business strategy when CCHub, an innovation center, issued a call for proposals focused on digital public infrastructure. Arogundade realized his unique background held the key. Before founding MyItura, he had worked as a credit analyst in banking and co-founded Trade Lenda, a fintech company providing credit solutions. He saw an opportunity to synthesize his expertise in lending with his mission in healthcare. The epiphany was clear: the most significant problem was not the lack of digital records but the lack of funds in patients’ pockets. If he could solve the payment problem, the technology problem might just solve itself.
The Real Solution of Building Financial Infrastructure First
This realization led to the creation of MediLoan in late 2024, a “get treated, pay later” service designed to remove the immediate financial burden from patients. The model allows individuals to access up to ₦200,000 in credit for medical expenses, with the funds disbursed directly to the healthcare provider to ensure they are used as intended. The system is built for simplicity and speed. Providers can integrate a “checkout with MediLoan” option into their services via a simple API, akin to a standard payment gateway. The approval process is designed to be swift, with decisions made within 24 hours—or as fast as 30 minutes for fully integrated partners—eliminating the delays that often exacerbate health issues.
Arogundade readily acknowledges that healthcare financing is a high-risk venture, one that traditional lenders often avoid due to the unpredictability of patient outcomes and repayment capabilities. However, he argues forcefully that the risk of inaction is far greater. With data showing that one in three Nigerians forgoes essential care due to cost, the societal price is paid in preventable tragedies. A simple case of malaria, treatable for ₦10,000, can escalate into a life-threatening crisis if a patient, unable to pay, resorts to ineffective traditional remedies that may cause secondary complications like kidney damage. MediLoan was built on the premise that people want to be healthy and are willing to pay for care, provided they are given a viable way to manage the cost.
This pivot to financing created an elegant, full-circle strategy that is now unlocking MyItura’s original vision. By providing patients with credit, the company injects much-needed liquidity into the healthcare ecosystem. Patients are empowered to seek timely treatment, which in turn provides a steady and reliable revenue stream for healthcare providers. This newfound financial stability makes these same providers more willing and able customers for the very digital tools they once rejected. The EMR proposition is no longer an unaffordable expense but a valuable tool offered by a partner who is actively bringing them paying customers. MyItura is now expanding its APIs for other health-tech companies and deploying student ambassadors to train the next generation of doctors, ensuring the digital infrastructure is ready when the financial foundation is set.
The journey of MyItura served as a powerful lesson in market dynamics, demonstrating that sometimes the most obvious technological solution is not the one a market needs first. Arogundade’s initial goal was to build a digital health platform, but he discovered that to achieve it, he first had to build the financial rails that would allow the entire ecosystem to function. The company’s evolution from a data-focused EMR provider to a patient-centric financing service underscored a critical principle: understanding and solving the most fundamental human barrier—in this case, affordability—was the only sustainable path toward achieving a larger, more complex technological vision.
