For years, Africa’s healthcare story has been defined by a paradox – a continent with some of the world’s fastest-growing populations and most urgent medical needs, but one that still sends many of its patients abroad for specialist treatment.
That is the gap the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) in Abuja was established to address, with its first year offering an early measure of progress.
Since its commissioning in June 2025, AMCE has registered 5,759 patients and recorded 12,314 patient visits, drawing patients from more than 20 countries across four continents. Its advanced laboratory has served 4,715 patients and processed 40,730 diagnostic tests and investigations.
The numbers offer an early indication that the market for sophisticated medical care exists within Africa – and that patients are willing to travel for it.
But AMCE’s proposition is bigger than building a successful hospital in Nigeria’s capital. Backed by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the centre is intended as the first building block in a broader effort to strengthen Africa’s capacity to provide advanced specialist healthcare on the continent.
There is an important distinction in AMCE’s first-year figures. Although the centre was commissioned about a year ago, Brian Deaver, Chief Executive Officer said it has operated under its full licence for only about seven months. Most of the 5,759 patients were therefore treated during that relatively short period.
‘We have been very fortunate that specialists and hospitals across Nigeria have trusted us enough to refer their most critically ill patients to us,’ Deaver said in an interview with BusinessDay.
That early demand, he said, confirms the gap AMCE was designed to address.
The centre was not established to compete with hospitals offering general medical services. Instead, it is focused on areas where specialist expertise and advanced technology remain limited, while working with existing hospitals through referrals and partnerships.
That approach is already producing results.
AMCE has performed multiple open-heart surgeries, including its first triple coronary artery bypass graft procedure, alongside 11 additional cardiac surgical procedures and 99 catheterisation laboratory interventions. It has also carried out 173 anaesthesia-supported procedures.
In oncology, the centre delivered what was described as West Africa’s first stereotactic body radiation therapy treatment for lung cancer, a highly precise form of radiation treatment. It has also performed stem-cell transplants for multiple myeloma and introduced red blood cell exchange for sickle cell disease.
Its nuclear medicine programme is expanding, with SPECT/CT scans now available for bone scans, renograms and perfusion studies. PET/CT services are expected to follow.
These procedures matter for more than their clinical value. Every complex case treated in Abuja represents an opportunity to retain medical spending within Africa while building local expertise in procedures that have historically required overseas referrals.
Afreximbank’s pan-African healthcare bet
Afreximbank is better known for financing trade and supporting economic integration across Africa. Its decision to back a major specialist healthcare institution reflects a broader shift in how the bank sees development finance.
The AMCE is part of an effort to strengthen an area of Africa’s economy that has traditionally depended heavily on external expertise, capital and infrastructure.
Developed by Afreximbank in partnership with King’s College Hospital, London, the centre is backed by strategic partners including the Bank of Industry and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. Its mandate extends beyond clinical services to research, education, training and innovation.
George Elombi, president of Afreximbank, has described that objective as building Africa’s ‘health sovereignty’ – giving African countries greater capacity to provide sophisticated medical treatment to their own populations.
During a recent visit to the centre, Elombi said AMCE demonstrates the ability of African institutions and professionals to take greater responsibility for the continent’s healthcare future.
Although the centre is based in Abuja, its target market is not Nigeria alone. The 5,759 patients already treated include people from more than 20 countries, giving AMCE an early pan-African footprint. Its workforce of more than 600 clinical and non-clinical employees from 12 nationalities reinforces that positioning.
In terms of broader opportunity, Deaver cited estimates discussed during BusinessDay’s recent CEO Forum that more than $1 billion leaves Nigeria each year for specialist medical treatment, while another estimate puts Africa’s annual losses from outbound medical tourism at about $13 billion.
Although AMCE has made substantial impact, Deaver admitted the centre does not yet have empirical data to measure the impact of its operations on outbound medical tourism, but would work with the federal ministry of health to compare medical travel patterns before and after AMCE’s establishment.
However, early signs suggest the centre is already influencing patients’ decisions to seek treatment abroad. Deaver confirmed that patients who had planned to travel to Egypt, India or the United Kingdom cancelled those trips after learning that the treatment they needed was available at AMCE in Abuja.
Beyond keeping African patients at home, AMCE wants to help reposition Nigeria as a destination for specialist healthcare, attracting patients who would otherwise travel outside the continent for treatment. In that sense, the centre’s goal is not simply to reduce Africa’s medical outflow, but ultimately to reverse the direction of medical tourism.
‘Our objective is not simply to reduce outbound medical tourism but to reverse it,’ Deaver said. ‘We want patients from countries such as India and Egypt to choose Nigeria because of the quality of care available here.’
Building capacity beyond the hospital
For AMCE to become a genuine medical hub, clinical services alone will not be enough.
Deaver sees research as central to the institution’s future, arguing that leading hospitals attract the best doctors and researchers partly because of their ability to produce new medical knowledge.
AMCE has partnerships with King’s College Hospital London and The Christie Foundation in Manchester, one of the United Kingdom’s leading cancer institutions. It has also established relationships with Novartis, Roche and Siemens.
The objective is not simply to acquire equipment or medicines, Deaver said, but to collaborate on research and generate findings that can improve healthcare across Africa.
That could become particularly important in areas where African patients have historically been underrepresented in medical research.
Much pharmaceutical research, Deaver noted, has relied heavily on North American and European genetic data. AMCE wants to contribute to research that reflects Africa’s own populations and disease patterns.
BusinessDay understands that the centre’s immediate priority is expanding its bone marrow transplant and stem-cell therapy programme, particularly for sickle cell disease. AMCE has already used stem-cell treatment for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. Deaver said the centre expected to perform its first stem-cell transplant for an adult sickle-cell patient shortly, with plans to extend the programme to children.
Within 12 to 18 months, AMCE expects to introduce gene therapy through partnerships including Stanford University and other organisations. Liver and kidney transplants and robotic surgery are also in development.
If those plans materialise, AMCE will increasingly become the quaternary healthcare centre Afreximbank envisioned, combining complex treatment with research, specialist training and innovation- though that ambition raises a key question about affordability.
AMCE has recruited specialists internationally and invested heavily in sophisticated technology, including equipment that Deaver says is not available even at some of its international partner institutions.
To address affordability, the centre benchmarks its prices against those of Nigerian hospitals and countries such as India and Egypt, where Nigerians commonly seek specialist treatment.
For many diagnostic tests and treatments, Deaver said, prices remain within about 20 percent of comparable hospitals in Nigeria.
The Africa Life Sciences Foundation, established alongside AMCE, is also intended to help bridge the affordability gap. Deaver said the foundation has raised more than $75 million in about 18 months, excluding additional commitments from organisations including the Dangote Foundation, Novartis and the Medicaid Foundation.
Insurance, he said, will remain essential to making specialist healthcare accessible to a larger population.
AMCE is also pursuing preventive healthcare through wellness packages, screening programmes and free medical outreaches conducted with state governments. One recent programme in Bauchi State screened about 1,500 people, identifying heart conditions and cancer cases and supporting surgeries at no cost.
Those programmes reflect a broader approach to healthcare, recognising that treating complex diseases is only part of strengthening the health system. Early diagnosis, prevention, research, specialist training and financing are equally critical.
From Abuja to Africa
The first year has given AMCE something that no feasibility study could provide, which is evidence of demand.
Patients have come from across Africa and beyond. Complex procedures have been performed. The laboratory has processed more than 40,000 investigations. Hundreds of specialists and support workers have been drawn into an institution designed to operate at international standards.
AMCE must now demonstrate that it can sustain its clinical growth, attract and retain specialist talent, deepen its research output and make advanced treatment accessible enough to support a broad patient base.
For Afreximbank, the project is ultimately a bet on whether healthcare can become part of Africa’s economic infrastructure – retaining money that would otherwise leave the continent, creating highly skilled jobs, developing medical expertise and building institutions capable of producing knowledge for African populations.
Abuja is the starting point, the intended reach is continental. But for now, AMCE has demonstrated that patients are willing to seek advanced treatment in Abuja, that African hospitals can attract international specialists and that procedures once associated primarily with overseas facilities can be performed locally.