‘Afreximbank-backed AMCE’s high-trust workplace model could reshape African healthcare’

As Nigeria battles rising medical tourism, healthcare workforce shortages and overstretched hospitals, the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE), Abuja, is positioning itself as a model for advanced specialist healthcare on the continent. In this interview, Omorinsola Sofola, director of Human Resources, discusses how AMCE’s people-first strategy is shaping clinical outcomes, attracting talent and supporting its ambition to build an African-led healthcare institution with global credibility. HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE brings the excerpts:

How does AMCE’s Great Place to Work Certification translate into measurable improvements in patient care and clinical outcomes?

The connection between workplace culture and clinical outcomes is not aspirational; it is evidential. The Great Place to Work certification, affirmed by 90 per cent of our employees, is a measure of the environment we have built. But the real significance lies in what that environment produces.

When staff operate in a high-trust setting where they feel psychologically safe, valued, and well-supported, the downstream effects on patient care are direct and measurable. Communication across multidisciplinary teams improves. Clinical decisions are made with greater rigour and confidence. Staff are more likely to raise concerns early, which is foundational to patient safety.

Resilience and emotional intelligence are not peripheral to clinical excellence; they are preconditions for it. A composed, attentive, and emotionally attuned healthcare professional delivers better patient interactions and, critically, better clinical outcomes. We see this expressed in reduced communication breakdowns, stronger care coordination, and a patient experience that reflects the high standards of the institution.

The certification gives us third-party confirmation that the culture we have built is real. But what it ultimately validates is the clinical environment that culture enables, where our people are equipped to perform at their best, consistently, under pressure.

With 90 percent employee satisfaction, what specific workplace policies or practises have driven this high level of trust within AMCE?

Three things have been especially formative. The first is shared purpose. At AMCE, our mandate is unambiguous we exist to transform healthcare delivery in Africa. When people understand that their contribution connects to something of that scale, it creates alignment and engagement that no incentive structure alone can replicate.

The second is psychological safety. We have been deliberate about building an environment where every member of staff feels genuinely heard and respected, regardless of role or seniority. That kind of safety enables teams to collaborate, take initiative, and speak up when it matters, all of which are critical in a clinical setting.

The third is our approach to wellbeing. In healthcare, how people feel directly affects how they perform and how they care for others. We have placed resilience, emotional intelligence, and proactive staff wellbeing at the centre of our people strategy not as a complement to clinical priorities, but as a condition for them.

Underpinning all of this is a commitment to continuous listening. Employee feedback cannot be a periodic exercise — it has to be a live, ongoing conversation that directly informs decisions. When staff raise concerns, they need to see visible change in response. Trust is built through responsiveness, not surveys.

 In a sector plagued by brain drain, how sustainable is AMCE’s people-first model in retaining top medical talent in Nigeria?

Sustainability requires that we understand what actually drives retention. Competitive remuneration matters it is a tangible expression of how much an organisation values its people and we never understate that. But remuneration alone has not been sufficient to stem Nigeria’s brain drain, and it will not be.

What differentiates AMCE is the broader proposition we offer. Our people stay engaged because they find purpose in their work, trust in leadership, and real opportunities to grow, innovate, and contribute to something historically significant. For many of Africa’s best clinical minds including those in the diaspora AMCE represents a compelling answer to a question they have long been asking: is there an institution on the continent where I can deliver world-class medicine and build a world-class career?

Our answer is yes. But sustaining that answer requires ongoing discipline. As we scale, we have to ensure that the culture that earned the affirmation of 90 per cent of our employees is not diluted by growth. That requires deliberate investment in leadership, communication, and accountability at every level. The long-term ambition is not simply to staff a hospital, but to build a pipeline of clinical and operational excellence one that develops talent in place, creates career pathways that are genuinely competitive, and makes leaving Africa an unnecessary choice rather than an inevitable one.

How does AMCE balance wellbeing with the intense demands and resource constraints typical of healthcare delivery in Nigeria?

The framing of wellbeing and operational demand as competing forces is one we deliberately resist. In our experience, they are not in tension they are interdependent. A healthcare workforce that is depleted, burned out, or under-supported cannot deliver the standard of care that patients deserve, regardless of the physical infrastructure or equipment available.

We address this by treating wellbeing as a structural priority rather than a reactive measure. Resilience training, emotional intelligence development, and proactive mental health support are embedded in how we build and manage teams not offered after burnout has set in.

We are also realistic about the pressures that are specific to Nigeria’s healthcare context. Supply chain challenges, infrastructure constraints, and staffing gaps create real operational complexity. Our approach is to build the kind of institutional environment that equips staff to remain effective in that context not by asking them to absorb pressure silently, but by giving them the tools, leadership support, and systems that allow them to navigate it constructively.

Healthcare is inherently demanding. The goal is not to eliminate that demand it is to ensure that our people are supported well enough to sustain their performance over the long term, not just in the short run.

To what extent can AMCE’s workplace culture model be replicated across public hospitals facing funding and staffing shortages?

It is an important question, and the honest answer is that the model is replicable in principle, but it requires deliberate commitment, not simply good intentions.

The most transferable lesson is that culture does not require large capital investment to begin. Clarity of purpose, psychological safety, and genuine leadership accountability cost very little in financial terms, but they require consistency and discipline. Public hospitals can begin building high-trust environments by investing in those foundations, even within constrained budgets.

The second lesson is that wellbeing and performance are not in tension. Institutions that treat staff wellbeing as a reactive measure something addressed after burnout sets in will consistently underperform. That insight is available to any healthcare institution, regardless of funding model.

Where public hospitals face genuine structural constraints chronic underfunding, understaffing, outdated infrastructure culture alone cannot compensate. What AMCE’s model demonstrates is that the people dimension of healthcare reform is not a luxury reserved for well-resourced institutions. It is a precondition for any meaningful improvement in outcomes.

What policymakers and institutional leaders can draw from our experience is this: if you are serious about improving healthcare delivery, investing in your people in how they are led, supported, and developed is not optional. It is where the reform must begin.

What role does emotional intelligence play in clinical decision-making and patient management at AMCE?

Emotional intelligence is not a soft skill at AMCE, it is an operational requirement. Technical competence is the foundation of clinical work, but it is emotional intelligence that determines how that competence is expressed under pressure.

In clinical decision-making, self-awareness and interpersonal alignment matter enormously. A clinician who can accurately read their own emotional state and that of the patient or family in front of them will communicate more effectively, exercise better judgment in high-stakes moments, and build the kind of trust that is essential to therapeutic outcomes.

In patient management, the stakes are equally direct. Patients who feel heard, respected, and genuinely cared for are more likely to follow clinical guidance, disclose relevant information, and engage constructively with their treatment. Those outcomes are not incidental they are clinically significant.

Across multidisciplinary teams, emotional intelligence reduces conflict, improves coordination, and creates the kind of psychological safety that allows staff to raise concerns early. In a healthcare setting, that safety is fundamental to patient safety.

For these reasons, we embed emotional intelligence explicitly in our leadership development, performance management, and staff wellbeing approach. It is not treated as an interpersonal nicety it is recognised as a direct lever for clinical excellence

How is Afreximbank’s funding shaping AMCE’s long-term strategy in addressing gaps in tertiary healthcare in Nigeria?

AMCE Abuja represents a total Phase 1 capital investment of over US$300 million, developed by Afreximbank in partnership with King’s College Hospital London. The significance of that commitment extends well beyond the financial figure. Afreximbank’s backing reflects a long-term institutional conviction in Africa’s capacity to deliver advanced specialist healthcare to a standard that patients and clinicians across the continent and in the diaspora can genuinely trust. That conviction shapes everything about the strategy.

In practical terms, it means AMCE has been designed and resourced to address the most critical gaps in Nigeria’s tertiary care landscape in oncology, haematology, cardiovascular medicine, and other areas where the burden of disease is high and the gap between patient need and available specialist expertise remains acute. These are not gaps that can be closed incrementally. They require the kind of institutional ambition and capital commitment that Afreximbank has made possible.

As an institution established by Afreximbank, we also benefit from the discipline, governance standards, and oversight that this backing provides. Culture, performance, and accountability are tightly aligned within a governance framework that ensures our institutional standards are not dependent on individuals but embedded in how AMCE operates, making our model both sustainable and scalable.

The long-term ambition is not a single hospital. It is a platform for healthcare transformation across Africa, one that integrates clinical care, research, education, and talent development in a model that is African-led and globally credible.

Nigeria continues to battle inadequate healthcare infrastructure. How is AMCE contributing to closing this gap beyond its Abuja base?

AMCE’s contribution to closing Nigeria’s infrastructure gap begins with what we are building in Abuja and what that institution is designed to demonstrate. Our Phase 1 facility represents a deliberate proof of concept: that Africa can develop, sustain, and operate advanced specialist healthcare at a standard that eliminates the need for patients to travel abroad.

The immediate mandate is clinical to deliver advanced care in oncology, haematology, cardiovascular medicine, and other high-burden specialisms to a standard that patients and clinicians can trust right here on the continent. As we scale capacity and deepen clinical expertise, we expect to make a growing and meaningful contribution to reversing the outflow of medical tourism that costs Nigeria alone an estimated one billion US dollars annually.

But the institution’s role extends beyond clinical delivery. AMCE is equally designed as a platform for capacity building a hub for training, knowledge exchange, and research that strengthens the broader healthcare ecosystem over time. Improving patient outcomes and building a thriving, well-trained clinical workforce are not separate goals; they are the same goal, expressed differently.

Looking further ahead, the intention is to expand this impact beyond a single location including the development of additional centres across Africa and deeper partnerships with governments, policymakers, and health institutions. In that broader framing, AMCE’s contribution is as much systemic as it is clinical.

How does AMCE plan to compete with international hospitals that attract Nigerian medical tourists annually?

Nigeria alone is estimated to lose more than one billion US dollars annually to outbound medical travel. Across the continent, Africans spend between six and ten billion US dollars each year seeking treatment abroad, not because they prefer it, but because they have historically had no credible alternative for complex or specialist care. AMCE was established specifically to change that calculus.

Our competitive positioning is not primarily about price. It is about credibility. We are building an institution that delivers advanced specialist care in oncology, haematology, cardiovascular medicine, and other high-burden areas to a standard that patients and clinicians can trust, developed in partnership with King’s College Hospital London, one of the world’s leading academic medical centres.

Beyond clinical standards, AMCE offers something that international hospitals cannot: proximity, cultural familiarity, and a genuine commitment to Africa’s healthcare self-reliance. For many patients and families, the decision to travel abroad is not purely clinical; it involves the burden of cost, distance, and dislocation. An institution that meets global standards at home removes those barriers.

The goal is not simply to capture a share of medical tourism numbers. It is to build the kind of institutional credibility that makes travelling abroad for treatment an unnecessary choice, rather than an inevitable one. As we scale capacity and build a consistent track record of complex care delivered locally, we expect that credibility to grow.

In what ways is AMCE leveraging technology and innovation to improve healthcare delivery and efficiency?

Technology and innovation are embedded in how AMCE was conceived, not retrofitted into an existing model. Our ambition is to deliver advanced specialist healthcare to a globally competitive standard and that ambition demands state-of-the-art clinical infrastructure, digital systems, and a culture that supports continuous improvement.

Our partnership with King’s College Hospital London provides direct access to globally recognised clinical expertise and the knowledge transfer that comes with it. That partnership is as much about institutional learning and innovation as it is about clinical standards.

Operationally, we are investing in the digital infrastructure required to support high-quality clinical delivery from patient management systems to data analytics that support decision-making and enable continuous performance monitoring. The goal is to ensure that clinical and operational decisions are grounded in evidence and real-time intelligence.

More broadly, our approach to innovation is not confined to technology platforms. We see the development of clinical research capability, the integration of training and education into our operational model, and the continuous refinement of our people and culture systems as forms of institutional innovation, each of which contributes to the efficiency and excellence of healthcare delivery at AMCE.

How does employee wellbeing at AMCE impact staff productivity compared to traditional hospital systems in Nigeria?

The most direct contrast with traditional hospital systems is one of approach. In many conventional healthcare settings, wellbeing is treated as a reactive concern, something addressed after burnout, performance decline, or attrition have already set in. At AMCE, we treat wellbeing as a structural priority from the outset.

The operational impact of that distinction is significant. When staff are equipped with resilience tools, feel psychologically safe, and are genuinely supported by their leadership, they remain functional and focused under pressure rather than reactive or depleted. Fewer communication breakdowns occur. Multidisciplinary coordination improves. Clinical judgment is sharper. Patient interactions are more attentive.

The 90 per cent employee affirmation that earned us the Great Place to Work certification is not simply a cultural achievement; it is a leading indicator of the productivity and performance environment we have created. High-trust workplaces consistently outperform low-trust ones on the metrics that matter most in healthcare: staff retention, clinical consistency, patient experience, and safety culture.

What AMCE demonstrates is that the wellbeing-performance relationship is not aspirational; it is operational. Investing in how your people feel is inseparable from investing in how they perform.

Given rising healthcare costs, how accessible will AMCE’s services be to the average Nigerian?

Accessibility is a question we take seriously, and it is one that the institution’s founders and funders have considered with care. AMCE was not conceived as a facility for the few it was conceived as a catalyst for systemic change in African healthcare.

In the immediate term, AMCE is a specialist tertiary care institution, and delivering advanced clinical care at a globally competitive standard carries significant infrastructure and operational costs. We are clear-eyed about that reality.

At the same time, the framework within which AMCE operates acknowledges the imperative of inclusive access. Our engagement with insurance providers, the national health insurance framework, and potential government partnership arrangements is part of a broader effort to ensure that financial barriers do not become absolute barriers to care for Nigerians who need it.

The deeper point is this: one of the most significant costs facing Nigerian families today is the cost of travelling abroad for specialist care in financial, emotional, and clinical terms. An institution that delivers that care locally, to a globally credible standard, is already addressing one of the most acute access challenges in Nigeria’s healthcare landscape. Building the capacity that makes local specialist care viable and trusted is itself an act of expanding access.

What lessons can policymakers draw from AMCE’s high-performance culture in reforming Nigeria’s public health institutions?

The most fundamental lesson is one that applies regardless of funding model or institutional type: culture is not a luxury; it is a governance priority. High-trust environments that enable people to perform at their best are not the product of unlimited budgets. They are the product of deliberate leadership, clear purpose, and consistent accountability.

For policymakers, the insight from AMCE’s experience is that healthcare reform cannot be reduced to infrastructure investment alone. Physical facilities, equipment, and technology matter, but the people who operate them matter more. Institutions that underinvest in their workforce in how staff are led, developed, supported, and valued will consistently underperform, regardless of the capital invested in buildings.

A second lesson is the importance of alignment. People strategy must be connected to organisational mission, not run as a parallel HR function. For public health institutions, that means ensuring that workforce development, wellbeing, and performance management are integrated into the overall reform agenda, not treated as secondary considerations.

A third lesson concerns measurement. What gets measured gets managed. AMCE’s commitment to continuous listening to treating employee feedback as a live, ongoing conversation that directly informs decisions offers a model for how public institutions can build accountability into culture management, rather than relying solely on periodic reviews.

The broader message for Nigeria’s policymakers is this: improving patient outcomes and building a thriving clinical workforce are not competing objectives. They are the same objective, pursued through different means.

How is AMCE addressing systemic challenges such as underfunding, outdated equipment, and workforce shortages in the Nigerian health sector?

AMCE’s response to Nigeria’s systemic healthcare challenges begins with the model itself. A capital investment of over US$300 million by Afreximbank in partnership with King’s College Hospital London represents a direct intervention against the underfunding that has historically constrained tertiary care provision in Nigeria. That investment funds not just physical infrastructure, but the clinical systems, staffing architecture, and institutional standards required to deliver specialist care at a globally competitive level.

On equipment and infrastructure, we have been deliberate about ensuring that AMCE is resourced appropriately for the level of clinical ambition it carries. Advanced specialist care in oncology, haematology, and cardiovascular medicine cannot be delivered on outdated or inadequate equipment, and our infrastructure reflects that requirement.

On the workforce, we are addressing both the immediate challenge of talent acquisition in a globally competitive market and the longer-term challenge of developing clinical and operational talent in place. Our partnership with King’s College Hospital London supports training and knowledge transfer. Our people strategy, anchored in purpose, culture, wellbeing, and genuine career development, is designed to attract and retain highly specialised professionals who have credible options elsewhere.

The systemic challenges you describe are real and long-standing. AMCE alone cannot resolve them. But what we can do and what we are doing is demonstrate that a different model is possible; that Africa can build, sustain, and continuously improve institutions that meet the highest clinical standards. That demonstration matters as much for the broader policy conversation as it does for our patients.

Looking ahead, what are the biggest risks to scaling AMCE’s model across Africa, and how does the institution plan to navigate them?

Three risks stand out as particularly significant. The first is the risk of cultural dilution at scale. The values and environment that earned 90 per cent of our people’s affirmation and that underpin our clinical standards were built with intention from day one. Growth creates pressure on culture. As we expand operationally and geographically, ensuring that those values are not diluted, inconsistently applied, or taken for granted will require deliberate and sustained investment in leadership, governance, and accountability.

The second is the talent challenge. Scaling a model of this ambition across Africa requires a pipeline of clinical and operational excellence that does not yet exist at the required depth. The healthcare brain drain is a structural reality on the continent, and no institution can resolve it unilaterally. Our strategy, building an employer brand anchored in purpose, investing in training and development, and creating the conditions that make staying in Africa a genuinely compelling professional choice addresses this directly, but it is a long-term endeavour.

The third is the risk of context-specificity. What works in Abuja in terms of regulatory environment, infrastructure, partnership architecture, and patient population will require thoughtful adaptation in other African contexts. Scaling is not simply replication. It demands a genuine commitment to understanding and responding to local conditions, while maintaining the institutional standards that define the AMCE model.

Our approach to navigating these risks rests on the governance discipline that Afreximbank’s institutional backing provides, ensuring that accountability, performance standards, and culture management are embedded in how we operate at every stage of growth. It also rests on the ambition that has defined AMCE from its founding: not simply to build a great hospital, but to build the institutional infrastructure for Africa’s healthcare self-reliance. That ambition does not change as we scale. It deepens.