Systems engineer Oluwasoga (Soga) Oni’s ambition to build Africa’s largest diagnostic network started when someone challenged him at MIT to develop a business that could impact a billion lives. Growing up in a family of medical professionals, Soga understood the gaps in Africa’s healthcare. While 70% of doctor visits require tests, millions of Africans cannot access even the most basic diagnostic services. This realization inspired Soga’s 2016 launch of MDaaS Global to provide affordable secondhand diagnostic equipment in Nigeria to medics like his father, a doctor managing a peri-urban hospital hampered by limited medical equipment.

When this option proved unfeasible for small facilities, Soga adapted his business model.

To create the volume that would make investment in testing equipment viable, MDaaS pivoted into a diagnostics provider to healthcare facilities and practitioners. The first of its fully automated community diagnostic labs was built to provide imaging, cardiac, pathology, and health monitoring services at the end of 2019. Uptake from patients was swift, and with a catalytic ABH grant in 2020, MDaaS built three new centers and created additional 50 jobs. By 2022, MDaaS had built 17 state-of-the-art diagnostic centers, tested 150,000 patients, and partnered with over 1,000 healthcare providers in eight Nigerian states. With the infrastructure in place and plans to take the number of labs to 40 and expand beyond Nigeria, Soga turned to virtual expansion and launched SentinelX. Using proprietary technology, SentinelX provides personalized digital, preventive healthcare screening and continuous support to those already tested.

The problem solver who chose computer and electrical engineering over the family profession is markedly impacting healthcare. With Africa’s fastest-growing network of diagnostic facilities, Soga is ready to scale.