Meet the Founders

A long time ago, long before Inocul8 had a logo, a clinic, or even a name—a seed was planted.

Farmers say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the next best time is now. In many ways, that is how the Inocul8 story began: as a quiet seed of an idea that the future of health in Africa should be built on prevention, not on pain.

Inocul8 was officially founded in 2019 by Dr Osezua Momoh and Dr Emmanuel Egbroko, with a clear mission: to help families prevent communicable diseases. The spark for this mission, however, started years earlier. With a near-death experience Emmanuel had while serving as a Youth Corps member in Northern Nigeria.

Before Inocul8, they were just two young doctors in their twenties, full of questions and restless energy.

In 2016, Emmanuel and Momoh met at a Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Regional Leadership Center program at GIMPA in Accra, Ghana. Surrounded by other young leaders dreaming about the future of the continent, they began asking themselves a hard question:

“If we really want to change health in our country, where do we start?”

They both knew the truth: health insurance coverage was low, hospital wards were full, and people were still dying from diseases that had vaccines and simple preventive solutions. The more they spoke, the clearer it became—prevention wasn’t just important; it was the only logical starting point. Focusing on preventive healthcare, they decided, would be the best thing after sliced bread.

After YALI, life took them to different corners of Nigeria, but their shared mission followed them.

In December 2016, Momoh went to serve at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), where he helped manage people living with HIV.

Emmanuel served at the General Hospital in Minna, Niger State, where he provided access to medications for patients living with HIV.

There, Emmanuel witnessed the reality of preventable disease up close:

• He saw a high burden of hepatitis B among patients visiting the hospital.
• He saw children on the streets who had lost their limbs to poliovirus infection.
• He experienced communities struggling with poor access to clean water.

He carried these images with him and often called Momoh to share what he was seeing. Those conversations slowly turned into conviction: this was not how things had to be.

Then came the moment that changed everything.

In April 2017, Emmanuel fell critically ill and was hospitalised at the General Hospital in Minna with severe typhoid fever. Lying on the hospital bed, weak and unsure of what would happen next, he experienced firsthand what it meant to be on the other side of care—afraid, vulnerable, and dependent on a system already under pressure.

That hospital stay became his turning point.

It transformed their shared ideas from “someone should do something” into “we must build something.” That “something” eventually became Inocul8.

In Emmanuel’s words:

“We started Inocul8 to help people prevent infectious diseases because we didn’t want people to die from diseases that have affordable preventive solutions. I didn’t want people to experience what I went through in the hospital. I wanted access to prevention to be easy and convenient for everyone.”

From two young doctors with a shared conviction to a mission-driven brand, Inocul8 exists today because of one simple belief:

No one should suffer or die from a disease we already know how to prevent.