By Adedapo Adesanya
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), as part of moves to boost healthcare accessibility, has announced a $12.7 million loan to a Kenyan healthcare provider, Avenue Group Limited.
The loan will support the company’s strategy to grow its healthcare offering and boost its patient reach by 20 per cent over the next five years.
With the fresh injection, the company will develop new healthcare facilities and upgrade existing hospitals and clinics to expand its primary care footprint and improve its secondary and tertiary offerings.
Avenue currently serves more than 430,000 patients a year and is part of the Evercare Group, an integrated healthcare delivery platform in emerging markets across Africa and South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nigeria.
With backing from IFC and continued support from Evercare, Avenue’s expansion strategy includes creating a radiology department at its Kisumu hospital, installing state-of-the-art operating theatre equipment at its Kisumu and Thika hospitals, adding a new wing to its Parklands hospital and building five new clinics across Kenya to meet the growing demand for healthcare services.
The investment reflects IFC’s strategy to support private healthcare providers in Africa, helping them meet the soaring demand for quality healthcare and supporting governments to expand health services to all parts of the population.
Kenya’s private health services market is the second most established in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa, but supply gaps remain amid growing pressure for more services.
Additionally, by 2030, it is projected that deaths due to non-communicable diseases will rise by 55 per cent in Kenya, which means there will be more demand for specialist chronic disease management and services.
Speaking on this, Mr Imran Osman, CEO of Avenue Group, said, “IFC’s investment in Avenue is a testament to the quality of care across our network and the multiple growth opportunities we have in front of us.
“Avenue and IFC have a shared commitment to creating greater access to high-quality healthcare in Kenya and driving continuous improvement in our facilities, technology, and delivery of services across the healthcare continuum. We look forward to working together with IFC to expand our network and enhance our offering.”
“IFC’s role in the healthcare sector is to complement government efforts to leverage the private sector to help meet the growing demand for quality healthcare. Our investment in Avenue will increase the availability of healthcare at state-of-the-art facilities across Kenya, enabling more people to get the primary and advanced care they need,” added Mrs Amena Arif, IFC Country Manager for Kenya.
Avenue will also benefit from IFC’s advisory services support, such as the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) certification program, to improve the resource efficiency at its facilities.
IFC will also provide support to help Avenue strengthen environmental and social standards across several of its operations and create a dedicated E&S team, building on the ESG initiatives Evercare enacted over the past two years.
Avenue’s five new clinics, adding to the existing thirteen, will be integrated with the group’s three secondary and tertiary hospitals across Kenya, allowing doctors to seamlessly refer patients to receive more advanced medical care where needed across its platform.
Evercare is wholly owned by the Evercare Health Fund, a $1 billion emerging markets healthcare fund managed by TPG and backed by its global impact investing platform TPG Rise.
Avenue Group Limited’s model focuses on delivering quality healthcare at a lower price point compared to other private care providers. It does this by integrating its clinics with its hospital network.
