Mobilizing the banking sector for universal health coverage: a new frontier for public-private partnerships

The attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) remains difficult in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) due to gaps in health funding, high out-of-pocket spending and further worsening due to recent donor cuts. Existing literature predominantly focuses on traditional sources which include government budgets, donor aid, social health insurance, and household payments while the role of commercial banks as strategic health system financiers remains largely untapped beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

This perspective examines how commercial banks can provide innovative solutions and utilize their untapped resources to become strategic partners in health financing which can be harnessed towards attaining UHC.

Anchored in Financial Intermediation Theory and the World Health Organization's health financing framework, the paper reviews evidence from peer-reviewed literature, policy documents, and illustrative country experiences.

Commercial banks possess significant liquidity, risk-assessment capacity, and extensive networks that can be potentially leveraged through health-targeted savings and insurance products, ESG-aligned health bonds, de-risked lending to health SMEs. Structured public-private partnerships can further improve health outcomes while maintaining profitability. Empirical examples from Nigeria and other LMICs demonstrate the feasibility of these approaches.

The involvement of commercial banks in health financing involves the risk of equity concerns (urban bias, over-indebtedness, technicality of the products and profit-equity alignment), especially in weak regulatory context while PPPs can carry political undertones with higher political risks.

Commercial Banks and policy makers should promote health focused and inclusive products with literacy support, mobilize capital through bonds/guarantees, expand health SME credit, leverage PPPs, and monitor outcomes to mitigate risk.

The integration of commercial banks into UHC as strategic partners can bridge financing gaps, improve health access, and strengthen health system resilience in LMICs, provided supportive regulation, ethical frameworks, and contextual adaptation guide their engagement.