What is her tomorrow worth? Advancing breast cancer care across Africa

For us, it is worth everything. To address systemic delays, infrastructure gaps and high out-of-pocket costs, Roche launched the Africa Breast Cancer Ambition (ABCA) in early 2024, aligned with the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative Implementation Framework.2 ABCA sets a clear target: working with public and private partners to establish the systemic foundations required to enable 80% of women in Africa to survive breast cancer at five years by 2030. Concrete initiatives across Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Zimbabwe demonstrate how this ambition is actively delivered.

What is the socio-economic cost of inaction in African oncology?

When evaluating public health investments, systems traditionally focus on immediate treatment costs. However, a 2025 socio-economic impact study conducted by the WifOR Institute demonstrates that understanding the true value of care requires evaluating a woman's societal contribution across three interconnected levels3:

• To her family (generational stability): A mother's physical loss increases her child's mortality risk by 4.09 times and generates an estimated 210 maternal orphans per 100 deaths under age 50.

• To her community (civic resilience): She serves as the core driver of the informal care economy, local safety nets and social cohesion that public budgets cannot replicate.

• To the economy (productive growth): Early-stage care protects workforce Gross Value Added (GVA) in a region where 89% of the disease burden strikes women during their peak working years (ages 20-59).

The macro-economic toll of delayed diagnosis is substantial. Evaluating HER2+ breast cancer – which represents approximately 15% to 20% of all breast cancer cases globally – across seven countries in the region (Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia), the WifOR study revealed that 1.2 million healthy years lost and USD 10.3 billion in lost productivity occurred between 2017 and 20233.

Below are some of the ABCA initiatives underway across the region:

Nigeria: How do public–private partnerships strengthen oncology infrastructure, diagnostics and access?

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in Nigeria, with over 44,000 new cases reported in 2024, according to the IARC Global Cancer Observatory.4 More than 80% of patients face high out-of-pocket costs, creating severe financial barriers to timely care.5

To scale and expand specialised end-to-end oncology capacity, Roche co-developed the Foresee Model: Comprehensive Cancer Centres Catalyser (4C) to mobilise Development Finance Institution (DFI) and private-sector capital. In Nigeria, this framework enabled the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA/MedServe) to pool USD 154 million, representing the IFC’s first direct oncology investment in Nigeria through this structure.6

In parallel, collaboration with NSIA/MedServe has supported the expansion of accredited cancer Centres of Excellence nationwide from a pilot of 7 to more than 20, training 152 clinicians across 10 institutions and processing over 400,000 patients to date. To  standardise diagnosis, Roche partnered with the Federal Ministry of Health to embed immunohistochemistry (IHC) testing into national essential diagnostic guidelines. At the same time, an NHIA–Roche partnership established a cost-sharing model under which Roche covers 50% of biologic medicine costs, linking hospital indigent programmes directly to State Social Registers and national safety nets such us the National Cancer Health Fund.5 Together, these initiatives have strengthened the end-to-end patient journey by addressing physical infrastructure, clinical capacity and patient affordability.

Côte d'Ivoire: What happens when treatments are accessible, but cultural barriers remain?

When healthcare authorities build clinics and make treatments free, do patients automatically come? In Côte d'Ivoire, experience showed that removing financial barriers was only the first step.

Starting in 2014, the Ivorian Ministry of Health and Roche established long-term public-private partnerships, leading to a unified "basket deal" portfolio agreement. This model helps the government manage overall spending while enabling eligible patients to access more than 12 innovative treatments without paying out-of-pocket costs. However, healthcare professionals observed that complex cultural mechanisms, health literacy gaps, and fear continued to delay care-seeking.

To understand these dynamics, Roche partnered with the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) and Benthurst to conduct ethnographic research in rural Taabo and in urban Korhogo.7 In October 2025, the programme launched the 'Dames D'Or' (Golden Ladies) peer network. Comprising trained community health workers, coaches and breast cancer survivors, these ambassadors use storytelling and emotional support to build health literacy within the community, bridging the gap between villages and tertiary hospitals.

Ghana: How does digital navigation streamline patient pathways?

According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Cancer Tomorrow platform for Ghana, Ghana recorded 5,487 new breast cancer cases and 2,695 deaths in 2024, with annual incidence projected to reach 8,629 cases and mortality 4,325 deaths by 2040 without intervention.8 To tackle late-stage diagnosis and patient drop-outs under the ABCA framework, a digital health initiative launched across national tertiary hospitals in March 2026 utilises RedPath, a proprietary offline-capable digital mobile application designed for resource-limited settings.

Read the full story: Improving breast cancer care: Patient Navigation in Ghana 

Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Zimbabwe: How does primary care integration strengthen health systems across borders?

Connecting cancer screening with general primary healthcare services ensures that disease detection occurs before advanced symptoms appear. Through ABCA, Roche supports the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) to advance the Women's Integrated Cancer Services (WICS) initiative across Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Zimbabwe.9

During Phase I (2023–2026), the WICS initiative supported 19 pilot facilities, trained over 180 health workers, screened 17,587 women, protected over 3 million girls via HPV vaccination campaigns, and treated more than 80 precancerous lesions.

Read the full story: Transforming women’s cancer care through integrated primary health care 

Why does this systemic approach matter for health systems in Africa?

Delivering on the Africa Breast Cancer Ambition requires pairing capital financing with community trust and digital care tracking. The real-world results across Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya and Zimbabwe demonstrate that sustainable public–private partnerships can strengthen local infrastructure, reduce out-of-pocket burdens and streamline care pathways, building resilient foundations that protect women and strengthen health systems across the continent.

Maturin Tchoumi, Area Head at Roche Africa, said, “Every woman whose life is saved from breast cancer has a future that can continue to unfold. That is, ultimately, what the Africa Breast Cancer Ambition is about: giving more women across Africa the chance to live, to care for those they love and to pursue the futures they envision. Achieving this calls on all of us to work together, bringing complementary strengths to a shared ambition.”