By Hassan Omotayo
The Country Director, PharmAccess Foundation, Ms. Ndili Njide has revealed that the newly established Medical Credit Fund (MCF) will provide loan facilities to healthcare business owners and medical practitioners across the country to ensure quality healthcare delivery and its affordability.
Stating this at the Continuing Medical Education Workshop on Quality and Financing Healthcare Projects, she said as a way of mitigating the impact of recession for the healthcare industry, interested healthcare providers, who would like to purchase medical equipments like radiotherapy can get facilitation through MCF for loans.
“Whatever it is within the healthcare value chain, including building a new facility, MCF will be ready to support such. MCF is not for profit but we are here for expansion and improving healthcare businesses,” she added.
Ndili also stated that as part of efforts to tackle the dearth of radiotherapy machines in the country, interested organisations who would like to provide radiotherapy machines and other medical equipments can be assisted as well.
“Healthcare financing is very minimal. Banks don’t understand the healthcare business. The impression is that if they finance healthcare business, there is no collateral to hold on to and it’s not appropriate to lock up a hospital. And because they don’t understand the healthcare business, MCF is established to bring to the banks how the healthcare organisations function; on the hospitals we help them to meet the requirements of the bank,” she added.
Se said they have so far facilitated loans to the tune of $16million in Africa, adding that the payment rate has been 96 per cent, which she said was a passmark.
“And now we are trying to showcase what we have done and to de-risk the healthcare market and also to encourage banks to give out more loans to the health sector”.
Adding, she said: “we are here to introduce and show case the MCF, which is enough of profit fund that was established by Pharmaccess foundation. We are trying to bring together all care business owners and medical practitioners who may be interested in the borrowing or who need resources to establish their facilities or to expand their businesses.
“My advice to the medical practitioner is that they should approach MCF is we provide necessary information that will enable them take loans. But also i know that a lot of healthcare practitioners don’t like taking loans. They will rather grow organically by expanding slowly but we are trying to change that mentality that you they can actually take a loan that will help them live on their proper business plan and that is what businesses in overseas do. And also as we are giving the loan we are also bringing along safe care to ensure that there is quality improvement in the service delivery” she said.
