Alain Nteff: The Game Changer Of Maternal Mortality

He was only 20 when he developed a mobile application called Gifted Mom.

Alain Nteff, Co-founder and Director of Gifted Mom, at 22, became multiple award winner. At 24 now, Nteff and his team have grown heights impacting pregnant ladies and mothers – in fact, the health sector as a whole. The computer engineer, graduate of the National Advanced School of Engineering, Yaounde, is referred to by CNN as the "Saviour of Cameroon's mothers." His app offers free mobile antenatal and immunization updates to pregnant ladies and mothers in some 34 health centres across the country.

He was worried by the high infant and maternal mortality rate in his community and wanted to help alleviate the problem by developing Gifted Mom. The app offers services such as the vaccination tracker, breastfeeding info and general antenatal care. It counts over 20,000 users, with experts dotted in 34 health centres in five regions of the country - Adamawa, Centre, Far North, North, West and South West. Gifted Mom is now present in 51 per cent of the country’s urban areas and 49 per cent of rural areas.

The 24-year-old and his team have leapfrogged infant and maternal health education through the use of mobile phone-based technology. The application has gained national and international recognition. The latest was the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation prizing Gifted Mom as best ICT Youth E-health application programme in all of Commonwealth in September 2016. Since becoming an Anzisha Fellow in 2014, Alain’s venture has received increased media attention from media outlets like the Huffing...