The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu on Friday Commissioned a multi-billion Naira Tertiary Health Institutions’ Hospital Equipment Intervention donated by Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara State.
The donation was in collaboration with a United States-based agency, Project CURE for improved healthcare delivery in the country.
The equipment donated to UITH include angle poise lamp, Ventilator, consumables, Mattress, OG couch, gynecology chair, treatment table, treadmill machine, crutches, ICU beds, urinary catheters, defibrillator machines, laparoscopy machines, needle and syringes, wheel chairs, Oxygen concentrator, suction machines, endoscopy machines, among others.
Speaking at the official commissioning, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede said that the intervention was for 12 benefiting health facilities in all the six geopolitical zones in the country.
According to him, the event was billed to kick start the delivery of JAMB-facilitated medical equipment carefully selected health facilities across the six geopolitical zones of the nation.
The hospitals that benefited from the gesture are: NORTH-EAST:- University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Borno State; Federal Medical Centre Azare, Bauchi State.
NORTH-WEST:- Yusuf Maitama Sule University Teaching Hospital, Kano State; Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, Zamfara State.
NORTH-CENTRAL: – University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Kwara State; University of Medical Sciences, Otukpo, Benue State.
SOUTH-EAST: – University of Nigeria Nsukka Teaching Hospital, Nsukka, Enugu State;!Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Abia State.
SOUTH-WEST: – Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos State; Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
SOUTH-SOUTH: – Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Speaking further, Prof. Oloyede said that the intervention of the Board in the area of health care delivery is to support government’s efforts aimed at addressing the huge medical infrastructural gap.
“In order to uplift the health and educational institutions, the Board will continue to prune down its expenses through prudence, the adoption of relevant cost-saving technology, and other efficiency-strategies to free up resources to support the major stakeholders such as the tertiary health and educational institutions through this type of interventions and its flagship programme of NATAP-M Awards through which the Board support tertiary institutions-infrastructure with half a billion Naira annually.
“It is no gainsaying that the COVID-19 pandemic provided the much-needed impetus for countries around the globe to do the needful by breaking barriers and tapping into available opportunities. For us in Nigeria, the pandemic served as a wake-up call that opened our consciousness to the need for adequately equipped public health institutions to complement our highly acknowledged skilled force of medical personnel.
“It is in pursuit of this noble goal that JAMB, in its wisdom, decided to enter into a partnership with a grant agency in the United States of America to equip 12 tertiary health institutions in Nigeria. This is premised on our fervent belief that we could address the deficits in this particular sector of our nation if every segment of the society contributes its quota no matter how little to confronting the lack in the critical areas of our society, such as health, food and education” he said.
While appreciating Project-CURE for its strategic interventions in promoting healthcare across the globe, he urged individuals and corporate bodies to imbibe the spirit of volunteerism and sacrifice and rededicate themselves to promotion of the best interest of humanity through facilitation of physical infrastructure and enhanced capacity-building projects in our inadequately funded public education and health institutions.
In his remarks, a former Chairman of the JAMB, Dr. Emmanuel Ndukwe, described the medical intervention as the beginning of the journey towards checking medical tourism in Nigeria.
Earlier, the Chief Medical Director of the UITH, Prof Abdullahi Yussuf, said that the medical equipment would help to provide necessary services to the hospital’s numerous clientele.
While thanking the JAMB’s registrar for his kind gesture, Yussuf said:” This is a novel and noble idea capable of helping the Nigerian masses. This is a happy event for me and the hospital. We are very happy to have it as the very first hospital to receive the equipment and to be commissioned among the 12 benefitting institutions.”
