Inside the head of an enthusiastic KimboCare

AFFY’s editorial staff went to meet Mr. Franck TIAMBO, Risk Manager in an international firm based in Zurich and Co-founder of KimboCare. He shares with us with great pleasure his career path since his actuarial studies.

Franck Tiambo, Co-founder de KimboCare Source: KimboCare image

AFFY: Hello Mr. Franck TIAMBO. We are delighted that you have agreed to grant us this interview. Please, could you introduce yourself to our young readers as well as your academic background?

Franck: Hello dear readers, I am Franck, married and father of four children. I have an academic background as a polytechnic engineer in mathematics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, followed by an advanced master in actuarial/risk management at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon and at the ISFA. I did all my schooling until I was 21 years old in Cameroon, mainly at the Collège Jean Tabi and at the Adventist College during my secondary studies. Then, I obtained a DUT in accounting and management at the Catholic University of Central Africa.

AFFY: What motivated your choice of field of study?

Franck: My academic path closely follows my passion since the youngest age to be able to take care of the greatest number of patients. Since I was unable to become a doctor, my ambition was to be able to offer financial products to the poorest people so that they could afford quality care. Hence mathematics to learn the basics of logic and abstraction to present complex things simply, then actuarial science to understand all the risks underlying health insurance products.

AFFY: You work in the upper echelons of the Swiss financial world in one of the countries where the most important banks, financial institutions, and international organizations are located. What are your impressions of this type of company? Do you think it is a model to replicate in Africa?

Franck: High sphere is a bit of an exaggeration (lol). Being able to put the right people with the right tools allows to reinforce the market discipline and allows to reach the level of excellence and wealth generated by these institutions. Good governance remains a major issue for many African economies and the ability to use resources efficiently and honestly could be a way forward. This being said, in my opinion, it is not very productive to tropicalize the successes of elsewhere, we should instead build our own solutions from our problems, our culture, and especially our ancestral values that we must imperatively acquire again.

AFFY: You are also co-founder of KimboCare. What is it and what are its missions? What motivated you to launch this project?

Franck: KimboCare is a digital health solution that allows you to pay for medical care for someone who can’t afford it. Our main mission is to enable 30 million patients to have access to quality healthcare by 2030 in order to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. KimboCare comes from a personal story that my sister and I experienced when we were trying to pay for health care for our loved ones back home. We were confronted with a lack of transparency, no certainty that the money had been used entirely for health care, hence this lack of quality that endangered the life of a cousin, a friend, or a relative several times. Thanks to new technologies including Blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things, KimboCare has been able to leverage the high use of cell phones and the careful selection of quality medical facilities to bring this major innovation.

AFFY: What is your outlook for the next few years?

Franck: In only 14 effective months of operation in West Africa, KimboCare is among the top 25 startups innovating in digital health worldwide according to the famous incubator Galen Growth. The icing on the cake, KimboCare has implemented advanced techniques making it one of the 27 innovative startups in digital trust in Europe according to the Tech for Trust program of the Trust Valley in Geneva. The outlook is therefore very positive, but the road to achieving our goals is still steep and long. This is why we are urging all of the continent’s dynamic forces to contribute to the building, however small, it will have an impact. So you who are currently reading us, it will be a pleasure to find you on our social networks LinkedIn or Facebook. Don’t hesitate to create your free account in 30 seconds on app.kimbocare.com.

AFFY: How do you see the African continent and its youth?

Franck: There are only very positive elements to underline. We observe a real change of mentality where the youth of the continent begins to understand that a hamburger is only bread loaded with meat (lol), it begins to understand that with a valiant heart nothing is impossible, it begins to be master of its present and its future while mastering its pre-colonial or even pre-slavery origins. Values such as intergenerational and social solidarity or resource optimization will be pivotal values of global transformation over the next two decades, African youth has these values in its DNA and will be able to defend its interests alongside youth from other continents and increase its resources tenfold with the establishment of good partnerships / sustainable alliances.

AFFY: What advice would you give to a young African who has entrepreneurial aspirations but faces many obstacles (social, financial…)?

Franck: Have the will to solve crucial problems for the largest number of people around you with simple solutions adapted to the local context and culture. Listening actively, starting small, learning, and adapting quickly should be part of your credo as a young entrepreneur. Finally, building a community of people who are as enthusiastic as you are and ready to give you constructive feedback, will allow you to convince any bank, any public institution, or even an individual to invest in your project and your vision. One thing not to be neglected in this difficult health context is to make sure you stay healthy by adopting the appropriate preventive measures. Young entrepreneur and future actuary, I wish you excellent health in 2021 because the rest is only secondary.

AFFY: Thank you Mr. Franck Eric TIAMBO for giving us your time to do this interview.

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