Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa
Board Chairman of New Crystal Health Services (NCHS), Prof Agyeman Badu Akosa, has underscored the need for private healthcare facilities to seek strategic partnerships that will inject capital into their operations.
He said such capital injections will enable them to operate more efficiently and attend to the health needs of a lot more people.
Prof. Akosa described the private healthcare sector in Ghana as a cottage industry and said there was need for them to adopt multi-disciplinary approach in their mode of operations and attract external funding to revamp their operations.
Prof Akosa, who is a former Director General of the Ghana Health Services, was speaking on the back of a US$5.7 million support from international investors to NCHS to enable it build two state-of-the-art hospitals and give three of its other facilities a complete facelift.
The financial support consists of a loan of US$2.5 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank and equity of three million Euros from impact investment group, Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), headquartered in France.
Prof Akosa described the capital injection into the operations of NCHS as “timely and absolutely crucial.”
He said NCHS had a good business model that enabled it to attract the funds from the reputable international investors. He added that it would enable the healthcare provider to continue to serve the low income group but also extended its quality healthcare to the middle and upper class within its catchment areas.
Prof Akosa urged other private healthcare providers to look outwardly for financial support in order to expand and support healthcare in Ghana.
Financial Consultant, Sydney Casely-Hayford, who is also a Board Member of NCHS, said they were upbeat about the operations of the company going into the future.
He said the expected upgrade in infrastructure would enable it to serve more people as well as expand to other regions of the country.
“We see New Crystal giving quality health care in other towns and cities beside Takoradi, Tema and Ashaiman and actually becoming a centre of choice for patients from neighbouring countries,” he said.
The Board of NCHS consider the capital injection as a means to a greater end and said it would continue to explore such strategic partnerships in order to achieve the company’s goal of becoming the preferred healthcare provider in the sub-region.
BY Samuel Boadi