Poised to deepen its engagement with the fledgling Nigerian-American medical community in the United States of America, the United Bank for Africa has proposed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between it and the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA) of South and North Carolina.
This, the bank said is as part of its commitment to strengthening diaspora engagement to advance healthcare development in Nigeria, where it made a healthcare investment proposition to the Nigerian-American medical community at the 2026 ANPA Carolinas Symposium held in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The proposed partnership, the bank said in a statement, is anchored on six strategic pillars: preferred banking offerings for ANPA members; quarterly financial education sessions: the joint Healthcare Infrastructure Fund; a dedicated ANPA Wealth and Legacy Desk; access to group-rate family healthcare plans through Avon HMO; and a UBA co-matching contribution framework to support qualifying impact vehicles under the Pearl Endowment Fund.
The initiative, the statement added, represents a further expansion of UBA’s diaspora value proposition, which currently includes Non-Resident Nigerian (NRN) accounts in multiple currencies, fixed-income and dollar-denominated investment solutions through United Capital, elder-care trust solutions under the Homeland Anchor Care Trust programme in partnership with Avon HMO, and private wealth management offerings tailored to senior diaspora professionals.
The ANPA Carolinas Symposium, hosted annually by the South Carolina and North Carolina Chapters, convenes over 170 physicians and healthcare professionals for medical and scientific dialogue on issues impacting communities across North America, the Caribbean, and Africa, particularly among people of Nigerian descent.
Speaking at the event, UBA’s Head of Diaspora Banking, Anant Rao, canvassed a structured diaspora participation in Nigeria’s healthcare transformation, encouraging attendees to expand their contribution beyond remittances toward long-term institution-building.
According to Rao in his presentation, “the financial infrastructure required to connect your success abroad to sustainable institutional impact at home has not been intentionally designed for diaspora healthcare investors until now,” Rao said.
He introduced the ANPA–UBA Diaspora Healthcare Investment Platform — a professionally managed investment vehicle designed to channel diaspora capital into specialist hospitals, diagnostic centres, telemedicine infrastructure, and medical training institutions across Nigeria.
“Every dollar invested delivers a dual return — creating value for investors while contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s healthcare future. We now have the regulatory framework, banking infrastructure, governance structures, and institutional commitment to make this possible,” he added.
Under the proposed structure, UBA will serve as custodian and structuring bank, while United Capital Asset Management, one of Nigeria’s leading asset managers with over ₦1.2 trillion in assets under management, will act as fund manager.
The 2026 ANPA Carolinas Symposium, UBA stressed, marks another milestone in its strategic engagement with the diaspora community and reinforces the Bank’s long-held belief that diaspora capital can play a transformative role in accelerating healthcare and infrastructure development across Africa.
