By Lateef Adegbite
In spite of the fact Heirs Holdings, described as the leading African strategic investor, which currently has a business relationship with Transnational Corporation of Nigeria plc, has investments that spread across the nation’s oil gas, energy and Hospitality sectors of the economy, it was said to have extended its operations to the nation’s health sector. The incorporation of AVON Medical as one of Heirs Holdings subsidiary companies appears to have led to the fulfilment of its dreams on the country’s medical space.
On Monday, , April 14, 2025, AVON Medicals, had Launched a 50-bed Hospital in Surulere, Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve center to complement the company’s existing medical facilities on ground like the Ikeja the Dialysis center, Clinics and Specialties medical centers including ANC, Gynecology and Pediatric clinics, all situated in Lagos.
Described as the first of its kind to established by any blue -chip company in Nigeria, the event was said to have attracted some high-profile dignitaries including top government officials from both the Lagos a state government and the Federal level.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos state governor may have seen AVON Project as that of the state government as he was said to have been accompanied to the event by top state government officials from the health ministry including the state Commissioner of Health, Prof. Emmanuel Akinola Abayomi.
Given the importance attached to the AVON Medicals Hospital project, may have encouraged, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, minister of Health, under the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’ s administration to honour the invitation extended to him to see things himself.
Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holding, who has made a mark in the nation’s banking sector, may have used the opportunity provided with the AVON 50-bed medical facility sited and Launched in Surulere, Lagos, to speak out, describing the project as a ‘’pride and deep sense of fulfilment for Heirs Holdings’’.
In an emotional outburst, the multi-billionaire investor who appears to be in the class of Aliko Dangote, who had built a United States, US$20 billion , 650,000b/d, refinery, at Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, Femi Otedola, ABC Orjiako, Mike Adenuga, Emeka Ofor, Theophilus Danjuma, a retired Army General and former minister of Defence, during Olusegun Obasanjo’s Administration, Abdul Samad, among others, had declared to the invitees admirations : Your presence as we celebrate this major milestone in AVON Medical Practice is encouraging.
He noted that as AVON Medicals continue on this journey ‘’to transform health care delivery services in Nigeria and across the African Continent, it would do everything within its powers and resources to sustain it’’.
Going down the memory lane, the multi-billionaire investor, had said that in 2009, AVON Medicals had taken the bold initiative to invest in the nation’s health sector ‘’to make a world-class healthcare accessible and affordable to all Nigerians both the poor and the rich’’.
He may have drawn the attention of the dignitaries to his speech when he alluded to the fact that if they should understand where the Heirs Medical Company had started, they would appreciate what ‘’the 50-bed facility sited in Surulere, Lagos, meant for many families and homes across the Nigeria’’.
He was emphatic that ‘’the hospital is not just for the wealthy or the privileged few but for everyone’’. He had averred that the Heirs Holdings subsidiary took the bold initiative to build the multi-billion-naira Hospital, having taking a closer look at the country’s medical problems and how the Hospitals that had had been provided by the government at the state and Federal levels have been ‘’overburdened’’.
The situation may have been made worse in these government owned Hospitals as they lack modern medical equipment, thus overstretching the few medical professionals in the Hospitals to their limits forcing many of the medical Doctors to relocate abroad in search of greener pastures.
Even the patients were said not have been finding it funny as some of them who were said to have to have been frustrated as they simply could not get medical attention in time had died. Elumelu, the Heirs Holdings Chairman is optimistic that AVON Medical and the Heirs Health Insurance Company’s decision to do something on the nation’s health sector ‘’to ensure people could actually afford them will pay off in long run’’.
He may have shocked the guests invited for the launching of the AVON 50-Bed Hospital when he disclosed that the Hospital was AVON Medicals’ way of ensuring ‘’we were not only building facilities but creating access to them by Nigerians’’.
Elumelu, described as’’ the big Chairman’’, by Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos state governor, who could not hide his joy over the commissioning of the AVON Medicals 50-bed Hospital in his home state, Lagos, may have acted like Oliver Twist after thanking the Heirs Holdings members for the project to have told the big Chairman ‘’I will come back to you very, very soon’’.
The governor who was said to have repeatedly told the guests at the Commissioning of the AVON Medicals 50-bed Hospital ‘’to please acknowledge for me, Dr. Awele Elumelu’’, who has decided to do something with her time and with her profession for the state. ‘’Thank you very much’’, he had echoed.
AVON Medicals, the governor had said has put their name on the sand of time in the nation’s health industry, not only in Lagos but in Nigeria as a country. This may have informed why he had said, ‘’let us use AVON as a platform to encourage other investors to make such an investment in Lagos state’’.
He may have sent a message to the investors who are ready to take a cue from Dr.(Mrs) Elumelu whose 50-bed Hospital that is being commissioned today, Monday, April 14, 2025, was an indication that the company is passing the buck to the state government. ‘’It is that we are partnering and collaborating with the company, he had said.
The Lagos state governor may have gladdened the heart of the Medical Doctors at the Commissioning of the AVON Hospital, when noted that ‘’ health Practitioners, health institutions, health facilities everywhere in world are not provided by one arm of a society alone’’.
He had admitted that the governments, both at the state and Federal levels, can hardly provide everything for everyone, particular, health infrastructural facilities. He was emphatic that ‘’the government can only provide the enabling environment for private equity, private partner and private investors to take that decision to put their investment into the health profession’’.
The no nonsense Lagos state governor has a word of advice for those who may want to invest in the nation’s health sect that ‘’it is not the easiest sector that any person can think that the profit will start rolling in between six to 18 months’’, noting that the investor must be ‘’patient’’. He would want investors in the nation’s health sector to understand that they are solving humankind problems and not investment to experience turnaround within a short time.
He was said to have stated clearly that investors in the health sector, whether in Nigeria or any other country in the African Continent, must be prepared to be there for a long time and must have the conscience and sense of purpose to say ‘’I want to help my people to have better health care’’ before thinking of earning profit. We need the likes of AVON Medicals, he had remarked.
Dr. Elumelu, the proprietor of AVON Medicals may have challenged His Excellency Sanwo-Olu, who in turn was said to have challenged the state Commissioner of Health, Prof Abayomi, to ensure that he gives a push to all the contractors handling various ongoing health sector projects in the state, insisting that they must be completed without furth delay.
The governor had alluded to the Somolu General Hospitals, Ojo Medical center, the ongoing health project around Harvey road, Yaba, and another ongoing health facility project in Kitetunyu, stating that they must be added to the stock of the state government medical intervention projects this 2025.
He would want the Federal Government as well to invest more funds on the health sector in the state , stressing that the state needed to have another Federal Medical center, FMC, to complement the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital, LUTH.
This is where, Pate, the minister of Health, who incidentally was a- one-time Chief Medical Director, CMD, of LUTH, may have to use his position to ensure that the request of the Lagos state governor for another FMC, is approved for the state.
