Firm to invest Shs1.5b in mortuary refurbishments
One of the funeral homes for body storage and vigils at Mengo Hospital. File photo
Kampala. A-Plus Funeral Management, a private funeral services provider, has announced plans of investing up to Shs1.5 billion in modernising three public hospital mortuaries beginning this year.
Through a private-public partnership, A-Plus will refurbish and takeover the running of mortuaries at Mbarara, Gulu-based Lacor and Tororo hospitals.
According to Mr Michael Zaake, the A-Plus head of business development, the firm has earmarked Shs500 million for refurbishing and equipping each of the three mortuaries into modern facilities in order to deliver competitive funeral services to bereaved families.
Mr Zaake said mortuaries at the respective government hospitals do not meet the standards expected of them in handling the dead.
Accordingly, A-Plus has decided to invest in upgrading them to the level of funeral homes such as the one at Mengo Hospital, which the firm took charge of last year.
He explained that A-Plus will buy and install modern body treatment equipment, construct storage facilities (cold and dressing rooms) and train human resource in doing post-mortem and handling of bereaved family members among others.
“The response in using our services has tremendously improved ever since we revamped the mortuary at Mengo and it’s something very positive that we want to roll out elsewhere. This is because we want to deliver services with reduced costs of doing business on the part of the company and low customer charges,” Mr Zaake said in a press statement.
Previously, not as many Ugandans considered the hiring of professional funeral management companies because their services were considered expensive and only meant for the privileged class of people.
However, as Mr Zaake observed, the trend is changing with more Ugandans contracting funeral management firms to provide services during loss of their loved ones.
He attributed the change in attitude to growing competition in the industry, which now offers a variety of affordable packages including funeral insurance.
