Biomedical Engineer
You design the medical devices and technology that save lives – and Africa needs engineers who understand its healthcare realities.
What this life looks like
What if you could use engineering to fix the human body? As a Biomedical Engineer you sit at the intersection of medicine, biology, and engineering – designing, testing, and improving the devices, equipment, and systems that healthcare depends on. You might design a low-cost prosthetic limb for a child in Nigeria, develop a portable diagnostic device for use in a rural health post, adapt a ventilator to work reliably under variable power supply, or work on the software that processes medical images. Biomedical engineering is one of the fastest growing fields in global health and technology. In Africa its importance is amplified: the continent relies heavily on imported medical technology that is expensive, difficult to maintain, and often designed without African healthcare contexts in mind. The biomedical engineers who understand African hospitals, African patients, and African resource constraints are the ones who will build the medical technology that actually serves the continent.
What she actually does
A Biomedical Engineer designs and develops medical devices, equipment, and systems including diagnostic tools, prosthetics, implants, imaging systems, and hospital equipment. They test and validate medical technologies, maintain and repair equipment in clinical settings, work with doctors and nurses to understand clinical needs, adapt existing technologies for low-resource environments, and contribute to research on new medical innovations. In Africa biomedical engineers often play a critical role in keeping hospital equipment functioning and in evaluating imported technologies for local appropriateness.
Where you can work
| Sector | Places in Africa |
|---|---|
| Hospitals and healthcare facilities in biomedical equipment departments | Groote Schuur Hospital (Cape Town, SA); Kenyatta National Hospital (Nairobi, Kenya); Lagos University Teaching Hospital (Nigeria); Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) |
| Medical device companies | Sinapi Biomedical and CapeRay (Cape Town, SA); Impulse Biomedical (Cape Town, SA); VIEBEG Medical (Rwanda) ; Simbona Africa (Ethiopia) |
| Research and development departments at universities and research institutions | Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Ghana; University of Cape Town Biomedical Engineering Research; University of Lagos; Cairo University Faculty of Engineering |
| NGOs and international organisations developing health technologies for low-resource settings | PATH Africa; African Biomedical Engineering Consortium (ABEC); Villgro Africa (East Africa incubator for health innovations) |
| Government health ministries evaluating and procuring medical equipment | Ghana Food and Drugs Authority (Medical Devices unit); South Africa's National Department of Health; Kenya's Ministry of Health medical equipment programme |
| Global medical device manufacturers with African operations. | Siemens Healthineers (SA, Egypt, Kenya); GE Healthcare (offices across Africa); Philips Healthcare (SA, Nigeria, Kenya) |
Why it matters in Africa
An estimated 40 to 70 percent of medical equipment in African hospitals is non-functional at any given time – primarily because there are not enough trained biomedical engineers to maintain and repair it. Africa also has almost no domestic medical device manufacturing industry, meaning the continent spends billions importing technology designed for high-income health systems. Building a pipeline of African biomedical engineers is essential both to keeping existing equipment working and to eventually developing medical technology designed specifically for African conditions.
Your pathway in
Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics at secondary school – all four are important because biomedical engineering draws on all of them. You then complete a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field. Institutions offering biomedical engineering in Africa include the University of Ghana, University of Lagos, University of Nairobi, Cairo University, and the University of Cape Town. A master's degree in Biomedical Engineering deepens your specialisation. Hands-on hospital equipment training, whether through internships or clinical engineering certification, is highly valued by employers.
Skills you will need
Technical: Engineering design and prototyping, electronics and instrumentation, understanding of human anatomy and physiology, medical device regulation and safety standards, equipment maintenance and calibration, and programming for medical applications. Human: The ability to work with both clinical staff and engineering teams, strong problem-solving in resource-limited settings, creativity in adapting technology for local contexts, and communication across the gap between medicine and engineering. Digital tools: CAD design software, programming languages including Python and MATLAB, 3D printing tools which are increasingly used for low-cost medical device prototyping, and medical device management software.
A woman in this field
Prof. Elsie Effah Kaufmann
Ghana
Ghanaian biomedical engineer, academic, Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences (since 2022), and Founding Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Ghana — the first such department in the country. She has been instrumental in building biomedical engineering education in Ghana and inspiring generations of young Ghanaians to enter the field. She is also widely known as the Quiz Mistress of Ghana's National Science and Maths Quiz, a television programme she has hosted since 2006.
Take your first step
Start by asking yourself: what medical problem in your community would you want to solve with engineering? That question – the connection between a specific human need and a technical solution – is the mindset of a biomedical engineer. Build your Physics and Mathematics foundation strongly alongside Biology. Search for the African Biomedical Engineering Consortium, which is building biomedical engineering education and community across the continent. Look at what medtech startups in Africa are building – companies like Zipline, mPharma, and Ilara Health give a picture of where African health technology is heading.