A collaborative effort between Rwanda and India is set to deliver a state-of-the-art hospital and medical college that will transform Busanza, a once rural locality of Kigali and make Rwanda a medical tourism destination.

Ground works are underway to complete the first phase of Believers International Hospital and Research Centre, a multi-speciality medical facility, which is expected to reduce the cost of treatment abroad and contribute to the country’s quest to become a medical hub.

Located next to Believers Eastern Church in Busanza, Kicukiro District, the first phase, consisting of a 220-bed hospital and a medical college, is set to be completed in 15 months, with the facility expected to officially open at the end of 2025, or at most early 2026.

In an interview with The New Times, Rev. Jimmy John Simon, the Acting Legal Representative, said Believers International Hospital and Research Centre will not only boost access to healthcare in Rwanda, but will also attract patients from the region and beyond, especially on the African continent.

The hospital, which mirrors Believers Church Medical College Hospital in Kerala, India, one of the best hospitals in the Asian sub-continent, will help reduce the number of patients travelling abroad for advanced care and also ensure that the services are affordable for Rwandans.

According to Rev. Simon, the hospital was born out of bonds between the Anglican Church of Rwanda and Believers Eastern Church, an Orthodox Church of Indian origin with congregations and parishes in 19 countries across the world.

Believers Eastern Church Rwanda opened in 2021, becoming the first branch of the development oriented Indian church in Africa.

"We are here for the past three years as a church and we are also part of our social aspect of trying to help people and the Medical College Hospital is one of the biggest projects that we are doing,” he said.

Choosing Rwanda

Prior to coming to Rwanda, Simon says they had not known much about the country but in 2018, Ernest Rwamucyo, who was Rwanda’s High Commissioner to India at the time interested them to come to Rwanda.

Being a ‘typical Indian’ himself, the Orthodox clergyman says that he had a negative notion of Africa as a difficult place to live or do business but the initial team they sent to Rwanda to do research came back with a positive report.

It is at that point that Simon did his own research and read a lot about the progress Rwanda has made under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, which made it easy for them to consider Rwanda for the multi-million investment.

"His Excellency [President Kagame] has done a tremendous job for the country and I am proud of him for what he's doing and the role that he's playing,” says Simon when asked why they chose Rwanda out of the many countries.

"Recently I was at one of the Kwibuka events and I would say it is so tremendous to see the work that he has done for all the people and to come from such a background to be in a state like this, I would say Rwanda as one of the best places to be in Africa and I'm glad our church leadership chose this place for the project,”

Simon says that after they were invited by the former ambassador and Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, they discussed the need to set up the medical facility to cut down the number of people traveling to India, Europe or North America to seek treatment.

"We have the expertise of having a 1000- bed hospital back in India which is known as the Believers Church Medical College Hospital which also has a Medical College of more than 100 doctors and hundreds of nurses and other paramedical staff getting graduated,”

"We wanted to use that experience here,” Simon says, adding that the hospital and college, which is more of a charity initiative than a private commercial entity, will help address the shortage of medical specialists in certain fields.

Simon says the project was supposed to be implemented in three phases, with the first phase, which is the 220-bed hospital, estimated to cost over $60m, subject to scaling. Phase two will see the expansion of the hospital to 400 beds while phase three would be the Medical University.

However, sensing the urgent need to train medical personnel in the country, at the beginning of this year 2024 the leadership of Believers Eastern Church decided to simultaneously implement the first phase and the medical college.

In Busanza, where the facility is being built, construction works are underway and Simon says the medical college will go a long way in training and equipping doctors and nurses from Rwanda and other African countries.

"We need a lot of young African brothers and sisters to be trained so that they can help their own people. We have the professional doctors who can train them and they can become the best doctors possible,”

"We want to give them the best training possible, which is the reason we want to do this University at the same time. We are looking at 100 students to be graduating at a time,” Simon said.

He pointed out that being a missionary hospital, there are a lot of doctors who want to come to Rwanda voluntarily to help as part of their contribution and many have expressed interest once the facility is up and running.

He says the modern hospital will also focus on serving ordinary Rwandans and they are already looking to discuss with the government to ensure that Mutuelle de Sante can be incorporated in their services.

Simon adds that once the hospital is up and running, it will bring down the cost of treatment tremendously, particularly the type people seek abroad, because once the equipment and expertise is in the country, the cost is minimized.

A collaborative effort

Dr Andrew Nkurunziza, in charge of Public Relations and Administration at Believers East African Limited says some of the factors that contributed to the decision for Believers Eastern Church to consider Rwanda include good governance, security and investor confidence in Rwanda.

He said Believers Eastern Church acquired the former Mount Zion University and the equipment worth over Rwf80m was donated to Masaka District Hospital and the Anglican College to pave way for the importation of new modern equipment.

Dr. Nkurunziza pointed out they have acquired all the permits and greenlight commence, with Chinese construction firm, Top Engineering Company, which built the Prime Minister’s office, contracted to undertake the job.

"In three-to-six-months, college construction will start. We intend to complete the first phase in 15 months,” Nkurunziza says, adding that upon completion, the hospital will become a medical hub, attracting patients from across the continent.

Oommen Varghese, who is overseeing the engineering team, says that construction of the hospital unit is currently at about 38 percent.

The facility will have two basements, a ground floor and four more floors, with typical Mangalore tile roof.

"We began in the month of August 2023 and now we are almost about seven months up and we plan to complete the civil engineering part by March 2025 and after that we will have the mechanical, electrical plumbing works,”

"We intend to complete the hospital project by early 2026, along with the university,” Varghese said.

Apart from himself, Varghese says all the other engineers and staff working on the project are all Rwandan.

Once complete, the hospital will offer services including cardiology, oncology, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, endocrinology and many others which people have been travelling to seek in other countries.