Afrika Finance is responsible for managing the National Dialysis Centre and the National Imaging Centre, funded with backing from the African Development Fund. Its CEO, Bel-Gaza Beyina, is proud of the results so far.
"I'd have to say that, due to these two centres, the lives of Central Africans have been completely transformed," he explains with a smile. "The dialysis centre is the first of its kind since the country achieved its independence, and it has made it possible to provide local care for patients suffering from kidney problems. Previously, they had to be airlifted elsewhere. So you can imagine what kind of change that represents."
The National Dialysis Centre was officially opened in Bangui in December 2020 but only became operational in April 2022. Head doctor, Dr Cédric Ouanekpone, would certainly concur with Beyina's statement. After studying medicine in Dakar and Strasbourg, he decided to return to his homeland despite opportunities to work elsewhere. "There wasn't a single nephrologist practising here, so I felt more useful," he says. And he was proved right. "There were so many patients that I couldn't even go on holiday, given the massive needs," he adds.
Dr Ouanekpone has made a rallying call to Africans with specialised skills to come back and help the continent where they have an opportunity to make a significant impact and change the lives of communities. His work with pregnant women, who are assisted during childbirth - with some substantial risks - and ultimately savour the joy of holding their baby in their arms, gives him particular satisfaction.
Also opened in December 2020, a high-performance digital diagnostic imaging centre houses a scanner in addition to other equipment. It is the only centre in the country with the technology to perform Doppler ultrasounds and provide analyses and diagnoses, helping both general practitioners and specialists to treat their patients more effectively.
The two centres have treated 6,500 patients annually and have quite literally changed the daily lives of Central Africans. Dr Ouanekpone has vivid memories of the experience.
"I still have fond memories of a three-year-old child who had a dialysis session that enabled him to become healthy again and attend school," he says with a satisfied tone. "He was an only child, and who knows, he might go on to become an executive in the future. Most of my patients can come for dialysis and go to work afterwards, whereas before this centre existed, they were a bit doomed."
Mr Beyina, who is responsible for the two centres, thanked the African Development Bank, and emphasised the revolutionary nature of these two medical facilities.
"These two centres have made it possible to attract Central African specialists, who are now motivated to return to work in their country because the centres have the highest technical standards," he concludes.
The centres were funded as part of the Support Programme for Reconstruction of Grassroots Committees (Phase 1), approved in June 2015 and fuelled by three grants: $13.43 million from the African Development Fund, the concessional lending window of the African Development Bank Group, another $7.03 million from the Transition Support Facility, plus $663,235 from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative, a multi-donor fund hosted by the Bank.
In addition to the construction of the dialysis centre and the medical imaging centre, the project has financed the provision of laboratory equipment and consumables to the National Laboratory of Clinical Biology, the National Blood Transfusion Centre and the School Health Centre laboratory, ophthalmology equipment for the Camps Fidèle Obrou and Maman Domitien hospitals, and six type B ambulances. It has also supported the training of health professionals, in particular, four radiologists -- one of whom is a woman--, two nephrologists and four biomedical technicians, one of whom is a woman.
The project also supported the redevelopment and construction of school, health, water and sanitation-related infrastructure, the promotion of youth entrepreneurship through the Jeunesse Pionnière Nationale (Young Pioneers) organisation, and local development.
Shut down in 2021, the project received a shot in the arm when a second phase was approved in September 2023 by the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund. It will contribute to expanding the dialysis centre from 10 dialysis chairs to 20, and furnishing the medical imaging centre with MRI equipment, among other things.
By providing the Central African Republic with its first dialysis centre and its first medical scanner, the African Development Bank has played a key role in significantly improving the quality of diagnoses and care, giving new hope to patients and the medical profession.
