Nigeria’s Thompson & Grace Medical City attracts major investor
Thompson & Grace Medical City project, has attracted Hamburg-based “Universitätskrankenhaus Eppendorf” (UKE) one of the world’s leading Medical Faculties and University Clinics, as a major partner for the planned Thompson & Grace Medical University and hospitals, tapping into Nigeria’s $1billion medical tourism market.
The Medical City is a business idea created by the Thompson & Grace Group (T&G), proprietors of Thompson & Grace Medical City (TGMC) and Thompson & Grace Medical University (TGMU).
To seal this bilateral agreement, Thompson & Grace Group, Nigeria will play host to a team of high ranking medical experts from Germany in the coming week.
The purpose of the visit is to get a perspective on how Education, Health, and Medicine can be transformed to benefit Nigeria and Africa. The highpoint of the meeting is the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between Thompson & Grace Investments Limited (T&GIL) and the University Clinic of Hamburg (UKE), Germany on Thursday, August 3, 2017, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The agreement shall set the frame for a close collaboration between the two signing entities in the planning, building and managing of both the Thompson & Grace Medical University and the Thompson & Grace Hospital.
The delegation coming from Germany consists of Uwe Koch-Gromus, dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Hamburg; Ansgar Lohse, vice-dean and director of the University Clinic of Hamburg (UKE); and Frank Riedel, one of Europe’s most acknowledged Paediatricians and for more than two decades Medical Director of Hamburg’s University Clinic’s Children’s Hospital.
The three experts are joined by project consultants from Germany and the United States of America. Isaac Thompson Amos will lead the Thompson & Grace Group team to sign the MOU.
On arrival to Nigeria, the team will be welcomed by Bernhard Schlagheck, ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Nigeria in Abuja, and on his invitation, will hold a briefing session on both the project of Thompson & Grace Medical City and the bilateral collaboration.
The German Government represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Collaboration supports the project through technical and organisational advice.
In Abuja, Uyo and other regions of Akwa Ibom, the delegation will visit several hospitals to witness how healthcare is set up and delivered in Nigeria and to understand issues affecting the advancement of healthcare in Nigeria. Furthermore, during a one-day workshop, the German experts will discuss their assessment with members of the Nigerian and West-African Healthcare Community, Local and Multinational Corporate Representatives, and Community Leaders. This conference will be held in the Niger Delta at Le Méridien Ibom Hotel & Golf Resorts, Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
The delegation will round-up its assignments with courtesy calls on Dominic Ukpong, commissioner for health, and Udom Gabriel Emmanuel, executive governor of Akwa Ibom state.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU