The Federal Government has commissioned 10 MedServe diagnostic centres nationwide and announced plans for a major infrastructure upgrade at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed this at the commissioning of the MedServe centre at UCH, one of the 10 facilities delivered under the Federal Government’s healthcare infrastructure programme through the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
Pate said the 10 diagnostic centres and six cancer centres were part of 16 major health projects approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in February 2024.
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“Promise made and promise kept. These 10 have been completed. We are now inaugurating them. This one at UCH is one of them,” he said.
According to the minister, three cancer centres have also been completed, while three others are under construction, bringing the number of completed projects under the package to 13.
Pate said the government was working on plans for a major upgrade of UCH, describing the institution as Nigeria’s first teaching hospital and a national centre of medical excellence.
“I want to assure all the stakeholders that we have thoughts and plans on the way for a major advancement of the infrastructure,” he said.
He also identified health worker shortages, migration and remuneration as major challenges, saying government was working to improve compensation within available resources.
Pate disclosed that quotas for training medical, nursing and pharmacy students had been doubled, although the impact would take years to materialise.
He said the government’s broader objective was to build a health system capable of meeting Nigerians’ needs and attracting patients from across West Africa and Africa.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Prof. Taiwo Oyedele, said the Federal Government was targeting a reduction in Nigerians’ dependence on overseas medical treatment through the expansion of diagnostic and specialised healthcare services.
Oyedele said the UCH facility was part of the Phase One healthcare expansion programme of NSIA through MedServe, comprising 13 centres expected to serve about 300,000 Nigerians within their first two years of operation.
He said government budgets alone could not meet Nigeria’s development needs, stressing the importance of mobilising private and development capital.
“Nigerians have long travelled abroad for treatment that can be provided here at home. Our ambition, therefore, is to reduce outbound medical tourism,” he said.
Oyedele added that Ibadan’s concentration of medical training, research and tertiary healthcare institutions gave the city a strategic role in achieving the objective.
The Regional Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Olivier Buyoya, said IFC had committed about $24 million to support MedServe’s expansion of diagnostic and specialised healthcare services across Nigeria.
Buyoya said the financing would expand access to reliable diagnostics, promote earlier disease detection and reduce the need for Nigerians to travel long distances for treatment.
According to him, MedServe’s expansion from one oncology centre to four and from two diagnostic centres to 15 is expected to create more than 17,000 jobs and train about 500 Nigerian medical specialists.
He said the investment was important as Nigeria faces a growing burden of non-communicable diseases, including cancer, kidney and cardiovascular diseases.
Buyoya said the partnership between MedServe, NSIA, government and IFC demonstrated the importance of combining public and private capital to address healthcare infrastructure gaps.
The Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, said the facility, which houses a radiodiagnostic centre and cardiac catheterisation laboratory, would strengthen the hospital’s capacity to provide timely diagnosis and specialised treatment.
He said the project reinforced UCH’s tripartite mandate of clinical services, research and training, while creating opportunities for improved diagnosis, advanced treatment and better health outcomes.
Otegbayo reaffirmed UCH’s commitment to staff welfare and patients’ comfort, saying every patient deserved dignity, respect and quality care.
The commissioning forms part of MedServe’s broader expansion of diagnostic and specialised healthcare services aimed at addressing gaps in infrastructure, equipment and access to advanced medical care.
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