In collaboration with the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Saving Maternity Homes in Ghana, Innovate for Health Project (SMH) recently completed an in-depth investigation on the current access to finance options available to private maternity homes (PMHs) in underserved areas of Ghana. Without access to appropriate credit, PMHs are unable to make strategic investments that will allow them to increase the quality and quantity of health services available, as well as to boost the financial sustainability of the facilities.

The collaboration between the University of Michigan and SMH involves the Ross School’s Multidisciplinary Action Program (MAP), through which teams of MBA students tackle pressing financial and business challenges. In March 2017, four MAP program MBA students traveled to Ghana to work with the SMH team on the ground. The MAP student team worked with several PMHs that have completed ownership/management ‘transformations’ under the SMH project in Ghana to gain a detailed understanding of their current financial resources, their investment goals, the potential health impact of realizing those goals, and the access to finance obstacles they face.

As a result of this collaboration with the University of Michigan, Banyan Global hopes to gain an increased understanding of the extent to which the anticipated return on specific investments might justify accessing credit at the prevailing high interest rates. This information will be useful to SMH, USAID, and any other stakeholders interested in facilitating appropriate credit and investment for PMHs.

The Analysis and writing is ongoing. We will update this post when the report becomes available.