Why We Established 50 Bed AVON Ultra Modern Health Facility In Lagos.. Dr Awele Elumelu ( Pictures)
The Chairperson of AVON Medical, Dr. Awele Elumelu, stated that the organisation was established to fill the vacuum in the healthcare sector in Nigeria and in Africa.
In her address, Dr. Awele Elumelu, said that the journey officially began in 2009, when the decision was made, saying that the inauguration was a particularly emotional moment for the organisation, a moment of pride and a deep sense of fulfilment.
“Today, I would like to tell you our story. Because when you .understand where we started, you will better appreciate what this moment means, not just for us, but for many families across this country.
“In 2009, the journey officially began. The decision was made. We took the first step. A bold step to make world-class healthcare accessible and affordable for all.
“Not just for the wealthy. Not just for the privileged few but for everyone.
“We were focused on the problems. We saw them all around us: overburdened public hospitals, lack of modern equipment, medical professionals being stretched to their limits, too many people frustrated as they simply couldn’t get medical help in time.
“We could not look away, so we decided to do something about it. That single decision to step in gave birth to Avon Medical and our health insurance company, Avon HMO.
“The first, to provide excellent healthcare services, and the other to ensure that people could actually afford them.
“That combination was deliberate. It was our way of ensuring we were not only building facilities, but we were also creating access to them.
“Fast forward to today: from our humble beginnings of operating just a work-site clinic at a single location, we have grown into a 50-bed hospital network, including a Dialysis Centre, and several worksite clinics,” she said.
Dr Elumelu stressed that when they reflect on the staggering facts about their healthcare system on the African continent, they will understand why they embarked on the project, saying that Africa carries over 20% of the global disease burden yet has access to only 1% of healthcare resources, adding that approximately 48% of Africans lack access to the quality healthcare they need.
“Only about 3% of global health workers serve our continent. In Nigeria alone, the gap in the number of available and qualified doctors, beds, and equipment reflects a system under pressure.
“The African healthcare system is the hardest hit by the migration crisis. These are not mere numbers. They represent real people. Real stories.
Real lives. And far too often, they represent women and children. Which is why this facility matters.
“Because now, more women will receive the maternal care they need to safely bring life into the world. It means more children will get timely diagnoses, life-saving treatments, and a better shot at long, healthier lives.
“This is what we are building: a healthcare system that leaves no one behind. Ladies and gentlemen, what you see here today is a reflection of our philosophy—Africapitalism.
“The belief that the private sector has a major role to play in our continent’s development.
“The belief that we have a responsibility, not just to generate profit but most importantly, to create a lasting impact, to do well and do good.
“To solve problems. To improve lives that will transform Africa. And I want to be clear, we are not stopping here.
“This achievement is not the end. It is only a springboard,” she said.
She added that the vision of Avon Medicals has always been bold: to create a network of health solutions that are not only accessible and affordable, but also world-class.
The medical practitioner promised that the company will continue to empower individuals to live healthier and fuller lives and restore hope in Africa’s healthcare system, while stressing that to achieve a developed Africa, then there must be healthier Africans.
“It is possible. It is achievable, and we will get there. But we were able to achieve this feat because we have passionate teams .across Avon Medical, and the wider Heirs Holdings Group.
“A Group that is committed to building solutions that improve lives because we believe Africa’s solutions lie with Africans.
“We can achieve major feats because we have people who are committed to our vision. To our team, I say “thank you”. This day belongs to you.
“We are also grateful to the public sector for their unwavering support.To anyone who uses our facility, we promise you excellent patient care. We are here because of you. Your health matters to us,” she stated
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State had on Monday April 14, 2025 inaugurated tje ultra modern hospital facility in Surulere Lagos onwed by Heirs Holdings company.
The inauguration of the 50-bed medical facility was witnessed by the Minister of Health, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, represented by the Chief Medical Director of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof. Wasiu Lanre, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, and the Group Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu.
In his speech at the event, Governor Sanwo-Olu recalled that his father actually worked in LUTH about 40, 50 years ago, saying that he used to take pride in LUTH, with the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State.
While saying that the real celebrant at the event is “my friend and brother, the big Chairman himself, Mr. Tony Elumelu,” the Governor thanked all of the Heirs Holdings members for the event.
“But truly, really, to acknowledge a lady that in 16 years, she did not sit back to say that it’s important, that I’m comfortable, but she has decided to do something with her profession, to do something with her time, and to do something that, indeed, even the other parts of Heirs Holdings might not have, which is Avon Medical, please acknowledge for me, Doctor Awele Elumelu.
“Thank you very much. I want to also acknowledge all of the other directors and practitioners in the health space. I can see several of you here. Thank you very much for coming.
“This is a Monday morning, and it’s bright and early, and it goes to show what the week has for us. For me, when I see an event like this, it says to me that indeed (and you can begin to see those numbers that they put on the banners there) there’s something that we’re doing well, but we all need to bring it together for it to make sense.
“And so, if it is for us to reschedule our state cabinet meeting for three, four hours, to come and be part of an important, you might think it’s simple, but an important event, where action, where vision, where collaboration, where partnership meets delivery for an ordinary man on the street, I think there’s no better job that I have, but to leave everything and come in and be part of this.
“And so it is on that very important assignment that I’m here this morning. First, to congratulate all of us that spaced out time to come and look at this facility today. But more importantly, to encourage and to congratulate the entire team of Avon Medical. When we listened to the story of how it started in 2009, they did not just give up after one little clinic or one small hospital. They wanted to make an impact.
“They wanted to indeed make a full print of what vision they saw, what issues they will have in a critical sector like health. And Avon Medical, I would dare say, has put their name in the sand of time in this industry, not only in Lagos, but in Nigeria.
“And so, for us, it’s to use them as a platform to encourage others. What we’re doing, it’s not that they are passing the buck to government. It’s that we’re partnering and we’re collaborating.
“Health practitioners, health institutions, health facilities everywhere in the world are not done by one arm of a society alone,” he said.
The Governor stated that Governments can certainly not provide everything for everyone, but that the government must create that enabling environment for private equity, for private partners, for private investors to take that decision and put their investment into the health profession
Sanwo-Olu said that it’s not the easiest sector to put money into, it’s not the easiest sector that one thinks he could make a turnaround in 12 months or in 24 months, but that one must have what is called patient investment.
He said; “You must have patient investors that will know that they are solving humankind’s problem. And so, it’s not an investment where you hope to make a return in 6 months or 18 months, and you are wondering what has happened.
“No.If you’re in the health sector, you must be in it for a very long time. But more importantly, you must have the conscience and the sense of purpose to say that I want to indeed help my citizens, help my people, help our society to have a better health outcome at the end of the day.
“And so, I feel truly proud of what Avon Medical has done, what you’ve been doing in the past 16 years. We know that you started as a small clinic. You went into the health insurance scheme. But now you have grown to a full diagnostic, O&G, paediatric health facility.
“I think they deserve another round of applause. For you in one location to build a 50-bed, full diagnostics, obstetrics and gynae, full paediatrics, neonatal and the rest of it, means that there are several levels of specialties that have been brought together. And I can see that specialty also being reflected here by one of our comperes, who is a medical practitioner who stands here to also be able to deliver.
“And so, for us, it’s really to thank you, to encourage you, to say that we’re watching, and we want to assure you that we’ll continue to create an enabling environment for you to work and to encourage others that want to also participate.
“Once you put that encouragement there, you will be attracting the relevant investment, and you will be attracting the relevant funding that is required for our health sector.”
He added that “we know that the challenges are still real. We know what the numbers are. Dr. Elumelu had mentioned it: 20% of the total global burden, with only less than 2% practitioners.
“Even in the 2%, we know that a lot of our medical practitioners still think that they need to go to other continents to practise. But we need to be able to reverse that. And how to reverse it, is the kind of facility here that we’re handing over.”
He stressed that as a government, in the last six years, not only were they able to solve seemingly difficult problems during COVID, which he said everybody talked about, but that it has given them that challenge to say that never again will they allow for other people, for other nations, for other continents to come and tell them, n the event of a global pandemic, how to be, because it showed them “at that time that they needed to take care of themselves first before taking care of us.”
“So, we need to understand and appreciate that we must do everything to have the institutions, to have the solutions, to have the facilities to take care of ourselves.
“And so, for us in Lagos State, in the last six years, whilst, being very modest about it, we’ve been able to hand over, I think, five facilities that are clearly mother and child hospitals.
“We’ve completed and handed over a maternal and paediatric hospital in Badagry. We’ve handed one in Eti Osa, by Ajah. We’ve handed over one in Epe and we’ve handed over also another one in Alimosho.
“There’s ongoing extensive construction and development that we’re doing. We’re building one of the largest—and I’m sure LUTH will want to compete with us—one of the largest facilities in Ojo, which will rival any tertiary institution in Ojo.We’re building the largest paediatric hospital in all of sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
