How Andrea Aid is building a crowdfunding platform for healthcare in Southern Nigeria

For millions of Nigerians without adequate health insurance, unexpected medical bills are often covered not by financial institutions but by friends, relatives, colleagues, and sometimes complete strangers. Social media has amplified that culture of giving, making it easier for families to ask for help beyond their immediate circles.

But with greater visibility comes the issue of trust. As online fundraising appeals become more frequent, genuine cases compete with fraudulent ones, leaving many potential donors unsure where their money is actually going.

Only about 4-6% of Nigeria’s budget is allocated to healthcare, a far cry from the ideal 15% target, leaving 90-95% of the population uninsured and requiring them to pay out of pocket for healthcare services. This direct cash model leaves many families financially devastated by medical emergencies 

Andrea Aid, a Port Harcourt-based healthtech startup, wants to solve this problem by helping patients raise money. He connects verified patients with donors using his platform.

Building a fundraising platform for healthcare

At its core, Andrea Aid is a medical crowdfunding platform that connects verified patients with people and organisations willing to fund their treatment.

Unlike general crowdfunding platforms, where individuals create campaigns themselves, Andrea Aid places hospitals at the centre of the process. Patients are onboarded through partner hospitals, their medical cases are verified before campaigns go live, and donations are paid directly to hospitals rather than into personal bank accounts.

“We’re big on transparency, authenticity and putting up verified cases,” Kizito Don-Pedro, founder and CEO, says. “Before now, there has been a trend of people putting falsified fundraising needs online. So we’re trying to remove fraud by working with hospitals.”

The approach addresses one of the biggest challenges surrounding online fundraising in Nigeria: trust.

Medical fundraising has become common on social media, with families sharing account numbers alongside pictures of sick relatives in hopes that strangers will contribute. While many campaigns are genuine, repeated cases of fraud have made donors increasingly sceptical. Andrea Aid attempts to remove that uncertainty by ensuring every campaign is backed by hospital records before it reaches potential donors.

Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer

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Launched in February 2026, the startup is building a medical fundraising platform that could encourage more people to support patients who genuinely need financial assistance.

The startup sources patients through hospitals rather than allowing anyone to create a campaign. To qualify, patients must already be receiving treatment at a hospital, provide medical documentation, and have their cases confirmed before they appear on the platform.

Once donations begin to come in, the money bypasses patients entirely. Instead, payments go directly to the hospital providing treatment.

The company has also built notification systems that inform multiple parties whenever donations are made, including hospitals, caregivers, and other relevant stakeholders, creating an additional layer of accountability.

The company also conducts audits whenever discrepancies arise.

Behind the business idea

Long before Andrea Aid became a startup, its founders experienced firsthand the financial strain that inspired it.

In 2023, Don Pedro’s father suffered heart failure. He was taken to the hospital, and the family was asked to pay a huge amount of money to sustain him. They reached out to friends, relatives, and anyone willing to help. Although they eventually raised the money, it arrived too late, and he passed away.

Two years later, another medical emergency forced the family into the same position. His sister gave birth to a premature baby who needed intensive care for three months. According to Don Pedro, the treatment would cost millions of naira. The fundraising cycle started all over again.

“We started calling friends, family, those we knew and those we did not know, taking from our businesses to meet the need,” Don Pedro narrates.

This time, the child survived. Her name is Andrea. The experience convinced the family that what they had gone through was not unique and was a problem in Nigeria that needed to be solved.

The startup eventually took its name from Andrea, whose survival became the catalyst for building a platform designed to help other families facing similar circumstances.

Finding a sustainable model

Andrea Aid currently operates without taking commissions from donations made on its platform. Every naira donated goes directly towards patient care.

“Our mission is centred around social impact, transparency and ensuring the support reaches those who need it the most,” Oreoluwa Olowonirejuaro, programs lead at Andrea Aid, explains.

That also means the startup cannot rely on transaction fees to fund its operations. Instead, its growth has been from grants, partnerships, and social impact programmes.

Before officially launching on February 14, 2026, Andrea Aid received a ₦1 million grant from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Youth Development in December 2025. The funding helped support the company’s early expansion efforts.

Looking ahead, the founders say they intend to maintain their zero-fee model while developing alternative revenue streams through corporate partnerships and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. Many organisations already allocate budgets to community health initiatives, and Andrea Aid hopes to position itself as a trusted partner for those interventions.

Starting from Port Harcourt

For Andrea Aid, geography has presented its own challenges. According to Don Pedro, introducing hospitals to a digital fundraising platform often requires extensive education before adoption.

“Every hospital that we go to, we have to do lots of orientation. We have to keep sensitising the staff on how to make use of the platform and the importance of the platform,” Don Pedro says.

Unlike Lagos or Abuja, where digital products are generally more familiar, convincing institutions in Port Harcourt often means spending more time having conversations before things can move towards partnerships.

“They are very receptive. They just need a little bit more time in terms of explaining and showing them how the process works,” Don Pedro explains.

The startup currently works with the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) through a partnership with the Insurance Foundation. So far, Andrea Aid has onboarded six verified patients from the hospital, three of whom have already received full funding for their treatment.

Scaling trust before scaling geography

Andrea Aid’s ambitions, however, extend beyond Rivers State. The founding members see the platform as solving a problem that exists across Nigeria and much of Africa, where high out-of-pocket healthcare spending continues to leave families financially exposed.

Expansion, however, depends on maintaining or upgrading the model they have built.

For hospitals outside their existing network, the verification process will remain largely the same. The company says it will contact hospitals directly to confirm patients’ medical records before listing fundraising campaigns.