Learning that 550 women in sub-Saharan Africa lose their lives each day due to excessive bleeding during childbirth compelled Temie Giwa-Tubosun to return to her native Nigeria in 2016 to find a solution. Access to blood supplies could save 75% of these lives. This reality led Temie to establish LifeBank, a technology-driven logistics company, to close the loop and deliver critical blood and other medical supplies when and where needed.

Educated in the U.S., where her family had settled, Temie’s graduate studies in public administration and health systems gave her an understanding of the medical supplies value chain. But it is her groundbreaking technological innovations that propel Lifebank’s success.

From a single desk in a shared workspace in Lagos, LifeBank developed code to match supply and demand, predictive technology to determine oxygen demand, and blockchain to track blood supplies. A multi-modal transport system of tricycles and trucks in urban centers, boats in riverine communities, and drones connects 30 million people and 400 hospitals to Lifebank’s 60 blood banks.

When Covid-19 hit, Temie had already built Airbank and swiftly scaled the supply of medical oxygen. She has since added StockBank and Quip for medical consumables and equipment LifeBank’s revenues have doubled year on year since inception. Government and international health organization partnerships have been forged. LifeBank has expanded to Kenya and Ethiopia, delivering medical supplies around the clock to 1,200 hospitals in the three countries.
Entrenching her contribution to healthcare on the continent, Temie established the Blood Oxygen Access Trust (BOAT) Foundation in 2020 to deliver subsidized crucial medical items to thousands of vulnerable patients. Since its inception, BOAT has furnished 1,500 supplies to more than 4,200 patients.