Dr. Wuleta Lemma is the CEO and Founder of Lalibela Global-Networks, an Ethiopia-based startup "leading the digital transformation of the health sector in Africa." (Photo: BIA)
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Updated: August 22nd, 2020
New York (TADIAS) — Dr. Wuleta Lemma, an Ethiopian American health care entrepreneur representing Ethiopia, is among the top 20 Africa’s Business Heroes announced this week by the Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative.
The announcement states that Dr Wuleta, who is the CEO and Founder of Lalibela Global-Networks — an Ethiopia-based startup “leading the digital transformation of the health sector in Africa’ – was chosen from a pool of 22,000 candidates across the continent.
“Congrats to the top 20 Africa’s Business Heroes finalists! Selected from 22k+ applications across all 54 African countries, these entrepreneurs are from 14 countries & 11 industries, and more than 50% are women,” said philanthropist, entrepreneur and Founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma on social media. “I can’t wait to meet them!”
The press release notes that the final cut of ten individuals will share a $1.5 million prize.
Image: courtesy of the Jack Ma Foundation
Dr. Wuleta is also an Honorary Associate Professor at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at Wello University in Ethiopia. She was a Clinical Associate Professor and the Director of Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE), School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
According to her bio: “Dr. Wuleta is a Tropical Medicine expert working for the last 25 years mostly on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, MNCH and Communicable Diseases. In the last number of years, Dr. Lemma has been involved in health projects in more than 20 countries in Africa, The Caribbean and Europe. During the past couple years, She had conducted research/evaluations on endemic health problems, Human Resource for Health (HRH), Innovative Medical Education, Behavioral Surveillance on high risk populations in a number of countries; contributed to research on Health outcomes of countries of the Horn of Africa and Health System Strengthen in Ethiopia.”
Business Insider adds: “Dr Wuleta Lemma has always had a deep love for Africa. Born in Ethiopia, she pursued degrees in medicine, epidemiology and international health abroad, but decided to build her career back home. She wanted to work with vaccines, but was disturbed to discover that many of Ethiopia’s healthcare information systems were still paper-based, out of date and inaccurate. In a country with a population of over [100 million], this had a significant impact on the quality of local healthcare. That’s when she started Lalibela Global-Networks to serve Africa by providing innovative Patient Centered Connected Health solutions.”
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