President Bola Tinubu has described the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) as a transformative step towards empowering local medical professionals and reversing the tide of brain drain in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
President Tinubu stated this during the commissioning of the state-of-the-art AMCE facility in Abuja on Thursday.
Represented by the vice president, Kashim Shettima, the president said that the centre is laying the groundwork for a new era of medical excellence on the continent.
“You are laying the foundation for a new generation of African medical specialists—specialists who will no longer be exported but empowered at home,” he said.
He noted with pride that Nigeria now hosts the largest stem cell laboratory in West Africa, calling it a major milestone in the nation’s journey toward healthcare sovereignty.
President Tinubu expressed optimism that with the establishment of the AMCE, Nigeria and other African countries will be able to compete globally in the delivery of top-tier medical services. He reiterated his administration’s commitment to supporting the growth of a comprehensive healthcare ecosystem that includes a teaching hospital, nursing school, and accommodation for healthcare workers.
“This is not just a place to treat the sick,” he said. “It is a place to train the future.”
The AMCE is a cutting-edge, purpose-built hospital designed to transform healthcare delivery across West Africa. The facility is backed by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), with King’s College Hospital London serving as a key clinical and training partner, ensuring international standards in patient care, research, and education.
The state-of-the-art facility has been described as a step toward transforming the continent’s medical landscape, with promises of world-class, homegrown healthcare.
The President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Prof. Benedict Oramah, said that Africa must take its destiny into its own hands, starting with healthcare sovereignty and leadership in setting global medical standards.
“The AMCE and two or three more that will follow in other parts of Africa, are designed to make a bold statement to the world that Africa is finally taking control of its healthcare future,” Oramah said.
According to Oramah, the project seeks to curb the billions of dollars lost annually to outbound medical tourism, while also addressing the critical shortage of research focused on diseases affecting people of African descent.
At the heart of the AMCE project is a cyclotron plant with an 18 MeV proton capacity, a rare facility in the region, which will produce radioactive isotopes for advanced cancer diagnosis and treatment across Nigeria and the West and Central African sub-regions.
“The cyclotron plant will enable the AMCE to lead in cancer care, support pioneering research, and develop new diagnostic agents and personalised treatment options. It will also serve as the most diverse biobank in West Africa, helping to attract both global and pan-African partnerships,” he explained.
The vision for the AMCE extends beyond patient care. Afreximbank is investing an additional $150 million in the development of long-stay residential accommodation and doctors’ clinics on the campus to support what is projected to become a major hub for domestic and international medical tourism, drawing more than 350,000 patients in the next five years.
In partnership with King’s College London, the bank is also laying the groundwork for the first-ever African campus of the College of Medicine and Nursing. This, Oramah said, would help close Africa’s medical education gap and nurture a new generation of health professionals trained to global standards.
To date, $300 million has already been invested in the 7-hectare AMCE campus, with another $150 million currently in progress.
Speaking about Africa’s urgent need to move beyond “pain-killer” solutions and passive responses to its healthcare crisis, Oramah said “For too long, our suffering has become a kind of pain-killer, numbing our collective drive to change the reality of healthcare in Africa,” he said.
The CEO of AMCE, Brian Deaver, described the occasion as a “milestone – not just for us here in Abuja, but for the entire African continent.
“What we are commissioning today is more than a hospital. It is a commitment and a promise,” Deaver said.
This is just as the country has secured over $2.2 billion in health sector commitments through the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, launched by the Tinubu administration in December 2023.
The initiative, which is already underway, aims to renovate over 17,000 primary health centres, train 120,000 frontline health workers, and double national health insurance coverage within three years.
The president noted that it is not just about unveiling a structure of steel and bricks, but also unveiling Nigeria’s “collective refusal to accept medical vulnerability as destiny.”
The President narrated reforms and investments made since he took office two years ago, including the signing of an Executive Order to unlock the healthcare value chain and the launch of the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC).
These policies, he said, have intensified local pharmaceutical production, improved regulatory systems, and expanded access to diagnostics.
“But our efforts did not end there. In December 2023, we launched the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative. That initiative secured over $2.2 billion in health sector commitments, with clear, measurable targets: to renovate over 17,000 primary health centres, train 120,000 frontline health workers, and double health insurance coverage within three years. These are not aspirations. These are milestones already in motion,” the President explained.
Paying tribute to Afreximbank President Prof. Benedict Oramah, President Tinubu said, “I must pay tribute to Afreximbank and its visionary President, Professor Benedict Oramah, for seeing what many dared not dream. This is what becomes possible when institutions rise to African challenges with African solutions.”
Also speaking, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, said that with the establishment of the Afreximbank African Medical Centre of Excellence, Nigeria is today healthier and wealthier than before.
He pointed out that if figures were to be displayed, the edifice would cost not less than $400 million mobilised by the private sector.
Giving his goodwill message, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Richard Montgomery, thanked the President of Afreximbank, the Board of African Medical Centre for Excellence and everyone who worked to put the hospital in place.
Others who spoke at the event were Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan, represented by Dr Jenista Joakim Mhagama, Minister of Health, Tanzania; Professor Clive Kay, Chief Executive, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Dr. Tajudeen Raji, Acting Deputy Director General and Head, Division of Public Health Institutes and Research, Africa Centre for Disease Control and many others.
