NIGERIA – Over two years after it was allocated land, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has announced that construction work on its African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) project in Abuja begins in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The facility, which is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2024, will provide world-class care to both low and high-income patient groups across the region. The AMCE will be implemented in four phases over a six-year period, starting off with a 170-bed specialist hospital before expanding to a 500-bed facility.

The Bank recently formalized its long-term collaboration with King’s College Hospital, London (KCH) on the project when it signed an agreement appointing KCH the Clinical Partner of the AMCE.

The onboarding of King’s College Hospital was recognized as an important milestone given their top-notch track record in providing healthcare services.

KCH boasts almost two centuries of experience in healthcare service delivery and health systems strengthening, adding that they will support the development of the Abuja AMCE in terms of clinical expertise and protocols, governance and administration support, facility and service setup as well as recruitment, education and training.

Nigeria was selected in 2017 as the host country for the first AMCE following a competitive bidding process in which Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania also participated.

The AMCE plans to offer a full range of medical services, such as diagnostics, treatment, nuclear medicine, surgery and post-surgical care, along with complimentary specialist services covering oncology, hematological diseases (including sickle cell and blood cancers) and cardiovascular ailments.

It will also offer education and clinical research services with a view to building leading talent and becoming a top tier quaternary-level medical facility.

“Abuja AMCE will tackle the rising burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, with general care capabilities that will serve the entire West Africa region and beyond. It is a demonstration project that will trigger similar medical centers across the continent” said Professor Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank.

The federal government had on January 29, 2019 allocated a 5.12-hectare land in Abuja for the development of Afreximbank’s AMCE to serve Nigeria and the West African sub-region.

The center will provide specialist healthcare to improve the quality of health care for Africans and will promote intra-African medical tourism.

It will also create employment and facilitate the conservation of the foreign exchange that would otherwise be utilized to seek medical treatment outside Africa.