Minister of state, budget and national planning, Prince Clem Agba, said the federal government has built molecular laboratories, intensive care units and special care baby units (SCBU) and others in 52 federal medical centres and teaching hospitals across Nigeria.
The minister said the health institutions were upgraded with the new facilities through a N500billion special intervention fund which was released by President Muhammadu Buhari during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
He said N950 million was released to each institution to intervene in four areas. He disclosed this during an inspection visit to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and the Psychiatric Hospital in Benin, Edo State.
Agba said the funds released were to build intensive care units, special baby care units and molecular laboratories and get them furnished with the aim of building resilience in the nation’s health sector.
In 2020, there were only two molecular laboratories across the country before the intervention. “The FG can boast of about 52 molecular labs and of course UBTH was a beneficiary,” Agba said on Friday.
The molecular lab has been completed but the ICU and isolation centre were still under construction.
Nigeria’s medical is about the poorest among its peers. The federal government plans to extend the intervention scheme to 13 more teaching hospitals under the 2023 national budget.
According to Agba, UBTH and Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospitals are among those to benefit.
“We were able to access some additional funding and we thought it should be put to the health sector.
“So, to that extent, we made an additional provision of N1billion to UBTH as well as Irrua specialist teaching hospitals in Edo,” he explained.
The medical director, psychiatric, Benin, Dr Imafidon Agbonile who took the minister round the newly constructed molecular laboratory and other projects in the hospital, commended government for the interventions.
Agba hinted that the Japanese Government in 2019 provided funding of about $18 million to support in communicable disease areas and provide NCDC with equipment.
“The intervention was to be in seven centres in the country. We also tried to ensure that two centres in Edo were covered, Irrua and UBTH,” he said.
“Today, I am here just to see how much progress we have made. We have seen in the media some people saying that President Muhammadu Buhari doesn’t have project in Edo State,
“Like they say, if you do not beat your drum, nobody will beat it for you,” he said.
In his response, the board chairman of UBTH, Bashorun Adedoja Adewole, thanked the federal government for the intervention projects in UBTH.
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