In 1996, a young doctor converted a three-bedroom flat on Aromire Avenue in Ikeja into a clinic. Three decades later, that clinic, St. Ives Specialist Hospital, is one of Nigeria’s most trusted names in women’s health and fertility care.
The man behind it all is Dr. Babatunde Okewale, a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists trained in the UK, who returned home determined that Nigerians should not have to fly abroad for quality health care.
St. Ives marked its 30th anniversary on July 10, under the theme “Celebrating 30 Years of Care, Compassion and Innovation.” The hospital is now a Safecare-accredited 4-star facility with branches spanning Lagos and Abeokuta.
Its specialty is IVF, alongside women’s health, family medicine and paediatrics. In the last ten years alone, St. Ives has delivered over 3,000 IVF babies, a staggering number in a country where infertility still carries heavy stigma.
That stigma is something Okewale set out to dismantle early. Beyond the hospital, he founded WFM 91.7, Nigeria’s first radio station dedicated to women and families, turning airwaves into a classroom for reproductive health. He also introduced subsidised IVF windows so cost wouldn’t lock out families who needed help most.
What sets St. Ives apart, though, is structure. Okewale built an institution that does not depend on his presence alone, a rarity in private Nigerian healthcare, where many hospitals rise and fall with their founders.
The anniversary celebrations reflected that scale: a media briefing, a community football match, discounts of up to 50 per cent for the public, and a gala night at CGI Events honouring three decades of impact.
Looking ahead, St. Ives is not slowing down. Three new branches are in the works, alongside urgent care clinics and an expanded telehealth service to reach patients beyond its physical walls.
Thirty years on, Okewale’s real legacy isn’t the buildings or the accreditations. Rather, it is the thousands of families who now have children, and hope, because of what started in a small flat in Ikeja.
