Mrs.
Nneoma Abassah, founder and managing director of Alpha Nursing Agency,a pioneer
health maintenance organisation that provides home care and nursing services
for the aged, sick and newborn babies and their mothers, in their own homes,
speaks on several issues, including her passion and experiences, as well as,
the challenging of Nigeria’s business climate, among others.
Congratulations
on your recognition as Africa’s Best Home Healthcare Service Provider of the
Year 2018. How do you feel to be so recognised?
I thank God for
the award. I feel very encouraged to continue the work we’ve been doing for
years. This is, however, not the first time that we are being recognised for
the work we do. In 2015 we were found worthy to received the Geneva 2015
Century International Gold Quality Era Award in recognition for our outstanding
commitment to quality and excellence in service delivery. Having said that, I
want to say that such recognition is very important, especially when you are in
social entrepreneurship. You’re taking care of people, you’re just doing your
thing, and you don’t even know that people notice what you’re doing. It is so
very encouraging, very reassuring and it also gives one the confidence to
continue to do what one is doing.
What
exactly does your organisation, Apha Nursing Agency, do?
Alpha Nursing
Agency is a health maintenance organisation that takes care of the sick, the
aged and newborn babies and their mothers, in their homes. Our focus is
basically to offer quality of life for the elderly. You should know that most
of them are ill. When somebody is old, there are some limitations that come
with age. So we are there to help them take care of these limitations and to
give them happiness in this stage of their lives. And for the sick, after they
are discharged from hospital and are recuperating at home, we offer them that
strength, that willingness and that grace to fight and regain their strength.
It could be for one week or one month or two months. That’s another aspect of
the service we provide. Then the newborn babies and their mothers. Because of
the economic situation in Nigeria, young couples no longer stay with extended
families. We fill that place of mothers going for what is called ‘omugor’ in Igbo land, that is, taking care of the
newborn babies and their mothers in their homes. So we send nurses to take care
of the mothers and their newborn babies until they are strong enough.
How
is the business doing?
Alpha Nursing Agency
is growing. We thank God. We’ve been here now for 18 years now. Currently we
provide service in over 10 states of the federation. And we have established
business relationship internationally with some organisations that we recruit
trained nurses for on a regular basis. We are growing, but there is still ample
height to attain which we are still praying that we get to. Though we are
growing, we are still not where we thought we should be by now. We want to go higher.
What
are the challenges you face on the field as you do this business?
Well, one is how
Nigerians tend to treat people who are deployed to work in their homes. When
people are working in the homes of some clients, they treat them as if they are
servants; they see them as second-rate people and so they don’t give them that
respect that they deserve as workers. It is a challenge that is common to the
kind of work that we do. Another challenge we have today is getting payment
from clients. Sometime when a client dies, the family would not want to pay for
the services that you’ve rendered anymore. They feel that you should
understand, and so many times we’ve lost money that way. But we have to pay the nurses because we
cannot tell them that somebody died and because of that they will not get their
salaries. Another challenge is the workers themselves. Some will not catch into
the vision that you have. For us the vision is making every old person that we
come in contact with feel safe and loved and to give them that fulfilment, make
them feel human and total as old people.
So workers do not catch into that vision. Some people just come on to
work for money. Despite the training that you give them, despite the
visitations, we would say that we still have few people like that who I would
call grey spots, and detecting them is one of our challenges, so that we do away with them because the most
important thing here is the old people we are taking care of and of course the
name of the company. But I believed that
as people get enlightened, it will be better, that they will treat the workers
better and all that.
Then generally,
the Nigerian market has its own difficult terrain to manoeuvre. The light issue
is a challenge because you now have to waste so much money buying diesel.
Sometimes the light would destroy the equipment when there is upsurge, and you
have to replace them. The workers would be demanding for increment, meanwhile
you can’t increase salary arbitrarily as workers would want you to do. They
would feel that you don’t understand what they are going through. But we cannot
just walk up to clients and say that we want to increase our fees.
Another thing in
Nigeria market is that there is no government support. What we are doing is
social service. I want to believe that we are serving the society. We are doing
what government should provide for the elderly. But then you see all sorts of
authorities coming to stamp in on us all kinds of taxes and other charges,
which actually we should be exempted from for the kind of service we are
providing. Sometimes they threaten us, forgetting we are giving employment to
over 200 people. I also believe that is something, providing employment. So we
are serving the government and the people and that should be recognizable by
law, but then we don’t enjoy any support or encouragement. We have been looking
for funds to get something better for our old people for many years now. But
the banks will only give you a facility and want to recover it in five years.
Meanwhile the venture you want to go into that would help the elders is not
something that you can recoup the money immediately. It is a long term project
and there is no place to get a long term facility. It is a big challenge.
What
type of project are we talking about here?
We would like to
have a place for the elderly, because so many of them are lonely. Some of them
see only the nurses from week to week. And they don’t see their age mates that
they can discuss with. And for us I would like to be there always, I would like
them to feel me. I would like to give out something I feel I have that some
nurses may not have, that love, that compassion. But because they are in
diverse homes, I am not able to give that to all of them at the same time. So
we need a place like old people’s home where they can be and be seeing and
relating with one another.
Don’t
you think that would pose a cultural challenge, like people not wanting to take
their old father or mother to old people’s home?
Not at all. On
the contrary we are already there because on a daily basis we get calls from
people that want to keep their elderly in a home. And some other people have
started it. There are about two now in Lagos. But they are not exactly what I
have in mind. What we really have a vision to start, the fund required would be
enormous.
As
an entrepreneur would you say you are making much money from this business of
taking care of people?
Well, in all
honesty we are not doing badly. But like I said earlier, our major challenge is
payment, debts, delay in payment, by people who loose their family member. Here
in Nigeria it is the individual that pay unlike abroad where the government set
up social schemes for senior citizens. But in Nigeria we don’t have such
schemes; it’s individual that pay for the services and I must say they are trying
because it’s also not easy, and taking care of old people is expensive. Their
needs are expensive – medications, disposables like diapers, some creams that
they should use, medical checkups and medical emergencies, etc.
What
are the common health issues that these old people encounter?
It is usually
organ problem because when someone is aging, all the organs are aging as well.
Some are issues of the heart, the lungs, cancer, arthritis, issues with the
brain such as dementia, Alzheimer, Parkinson, mobility issues, stroke,
diabetes, etc. Those are the major problem old people tend to battle with.
How
do you combine managing the home and your business because that’s always a
challenge to women entrepreneurs?
First and
foremost, I am passionate about what I am doing. At the same time I am guided
by the responsibility I have for my children and other members of my
family. I am also answerable to my
clients who give me their parents to take care of. I am a worker with many
bosses because I see all my clients as my boss. So I cannot but do well. I
can’t but gather strength from the grace of God and keep moving on.
What
advice would you give to younger nurses who desire to attain greater heights in
their career?
Nursing is not
about money making; it is not even about the training. Education is very
important though, and the skills that you get from training are very important,
because they are the critical skills that we apply to help people. But there is
something inside that every nurse should awaken in his or herself and that is,
compassion, the milk of kindness. Nursing is beyond giving drugs, medications
and all that. So every young nurse needs to awaken the compassion that is
innate in them. And then you must have the skills, and you will get better with
practice.
