Afreximbank is collaborating with Nigeria to finance a 500-bed African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) planned for Abuja as part of the bank’s projects to promote healthcare delivery across Africa.
Discussions at the meeting between Afreximbank’s President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Professor Benedict Oramah and his delegation with Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu in Abuja recently, centered on the Bank’s initiatives and financing support to Nigeria and its broader implications for healthcare across Africa.
Oramah’s delegation included Chief Executive Officer of the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE), Brian Deaver; AU Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, Minata Samate Cessouma, with AMCE Abuja Board Members, representatives of Kings College Hospital, London (KCH) and Kings College London (KCL). Also, in attendance was the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Mohammed Ali Pate.
During the meeting, all parties affirmed the importance of the AMCE Abuja project as a flagship development with potentially transformative implications for African healthcare, to significantly reduce outbound, extra-African medical tourism by providing world-class medical services on the continent and stemming the tide of healthcare talent migration from Africa.
When completed, the Abuja health facility would focus on three core non-communicable diseases (Oncology, Haematology and Cardiology) and general care capabilities.
Also, it would partly reflect co-operation with global partners including KCH, the University of Wisconsin Teaching Hospital, USA, and the Christies Hospital, Manchester, serving to demonstrate the direction in which African healthcare provision should go to better serve the continent.
The AMCE Abuja, which is nearing completion, is the first of five such health centres planned across Africa.
The facility would constitute a leading centre for research and development in medicine and clinical services, as well as offering residency, training and observership placement programmes to physicians and medical students from Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
To complement the AMCE Abuja and develop human resources in healthcare, Afreximbank has confirmed an arrangement with KCL to establish a Medical & Nursing School in Abuja to support the production of quality medical personnel in Africa.
The platform would also be used to collaborate with other colleges of medicine in Nigeria and across Africa.
Discussion between Oramah and Tinubu also touched on the landmark memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Afreximbank and the Federal Ministry of Health to support the development of Nigeria’s healthcare sector under the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking Healthcare Value Chains (PVAC) through a $1 billion Healthcare Value Chain Programme.
Commenting on the project, Tinubu acknowledged it as a significant step by the Bank towards investing in Nigeria’s healthcare sector.
“This facility is a great commitment to humanity. We are open and ready to assist this project in every way possible. Africa is in need, and Nigeria is committed to the need of its people. Putting people’s welfare first is putting healthcare first. The training and development of our people are our priorities, and we thank Afreximbank and their partners for their ongoing support,” he said.
Afreximbank President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Prof. Benedict Oramah, thanked Tinubu for the meeting to discuss on Africa’s central challenges: the provision and delivery of quality, effective healthcare.
“For too long, our continent has watched as its best and brightest medical minds have migrated to Europe and America – but we are now poised to develop a domestic healthcare sector which can retain talent, eventually rivalling and even surpassing systems in other regions,” he said.
