The Federal Government has pledged to support the Kano Independent Research Center Trust (KIRCT) towards finding fitting and lasting research solutions to healthcare challenges that confront Nigerians.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate, disclosed this when he paid a working visit to the Research Institute.
Prof. Pate expressed delight at the biomedical research potential of the Center, expressing optimism that it “would be able to generate knowledge that is fitting with our context, with our problems.”
“We have good people working very hard here, investigating diseases that affect our people and in doing so, we can find solutions that fit within the context of Nigeria.
“So, I am very excited to see what the Center is planning to do and we will find ways to mobilise support to enable them to succeed in what they are planning to do,” the Minister stated.
He charged the research workers at the Center to redouble their efforts with the view to optimising the goals of setting up the research institute.
“At the end of the day, no one would build your country for you. No country succeed in moving forward without the country making up its mind to move forward,” he said.
He pledged to get the Director General of the Institute, Professor Hamisu Salisu, to accompany him to a United Nations Conference in New York, hoping to add his voice to the Centre’s push for partnership with some international health institutions.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Director General of the Center, Prof. Salisu described the research institute as the largest biomedical research Center, not just in Nigeria, but in the whole of Africa.
He said the Centre holds huge potential for the health benefits of the people of Kano State, for Nigerians and for the global community, while offering to assist the government warehouse its vaccines.
The KIRCT Director General, however, sought the support of the Federal Ministry of Health to enable them digitalise health facilities in the North.
“We want to partner with the Federal Ministry to see whether we can digitalize the entire Northern Nigeria so that all the health facilities in the region would be digitalized.
“We also do community surveillance for infectious diseases, and we are creating a register for that, and when the time comes, I will give you a progress report,” the KIRCT boss told the Minister.
