Philanthropist and business mogul Thomson Mpinganjira has given the country’s health sector a boost with a launch of a facility capable of early diagnoses of 100 diseases.
In his remarks during the opening of the modern International Blantyre Cancer Centre (IBCC) Diagnostic and Medical Imaging Centre on Friday night, he said the centre has installed advanced medical equipment, including a computed tomography (CT) scanner, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, mammogram, X-ray and 4D ultrasound machine.
Mpinganjira also touted the centre’s diagnostic machine for up to 100 different diseases, including various types of cancer simultaneously, as the first of its kind in the country and on the African continent.
“We also have three other machines that can only be found in South Africa and Egypt. Our machines can also detect Ebola,” he said.
Mpinganjira, who founded the Malawi Stock Exchange-listed FDH Bank plc, said the new facility will reduce delays in obtaining medical test results, which previously forced patients to send samples abroad for specialised investigations.
He said: “I am so excited that the long wait for sample results is over as this diagnostic centre has the capacity to release sample results within two hours. Previously, as a country, we were taking these samples to countries such as the United States of America, India and China, which was taking a long time to come to Malawi.”
Mpinganjira said IBCC has already started treating patients from neighbouring countries, including Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
He also said the Thomson and Barbara Mpinganjira Foundation has invested an additional K16 billion in IBCC, bringing the total investment to K25.5 billion from the initial K9.5 billion.
Ministry of Health and Sanitation Principal Secretary (Administration) Bestone Chisamile commended Mpinganjira for the investment, describing diagnostic services as a critical foundation of healthcare delivery.
can detect Ebola.
| Ministry of Health
He said inadequate diagnostic equipment in public hospitals sometimes left medical personnel making treatment decisions without sufficient information about patients’ conditions.
Chisamile said the new centre could help address some of the challenges associated with referrals abroad, particularly the time required to obtain diagnostic results and the foreign exchange spent on specialised medical services.
“From the ministry’s budget, we use over K3 billion for referrals to facilities in India, South Africa and others, and the challenge has been the diagnostic services. But now, with IBCC providing those services here, we are going to save a lot in terms of time taken, foreign exchange and also accuracy in terms of the results,” he said.
Former president Lazarus Chakwera officially opened IBCC in March 2024.
To date, IBCC treated about 336 patients during its first year of operation, with 32 percent coming from outside Malawi.
