Nasarawa Govt Approves N3.6bn Equipment For Akwanga Specialist Hospital

The Nasarawa State government has approved N3.6 billion for the procurement of medical equipment for the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Akwanga.

The commissioner for health, Dr. Gaza Gwamna, who disclosed this yesterday, said the approval covers critical diagnostic and life-support equipment including a CT scanner, mammography machine, dialysis machines, laboratory equipment, emergency care facilities and specialised paediatric care equipment.

Dr. Gwamna said the first phase of the hospital’s infrastructure upgrade was expected to be completed by this December. He said the state government also considered proposals for the upgrade of General Hospitals in Azara, Awe LGA and Gudi, Akwanga LGA.

The approval is the latest funding injection for the hospital project which has become the centrepiece of the administration’s health sector expansion in Nasarawa North.

On January 14, 2026, Governor Abdullahi Sule signed into law the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital Akwanga Law, 2025 establishing the hospital as a specialist institution.

The law formalised the conversion of the old General Hospital Akwanga into a full specialist hospital. The state government earmarked N6 billion for the upgrade of facilities at the newly established specialist hospital to meet tertiary health institution standards.

Governor Sule subsequently performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the first phase of construction, expansion and conversion of General Hospital Akwanga into a specialist hospital worth six billion naira.

The first phase includes a trauma centre and a five-storey building equipped with modern diagnostic facilities.

According to the government, the project became necessary after the state-owned specialist hospital previously serving the zone was taken over by the Federal Government for use as a teaching hospital. This left a gap in tertiary care for the Akwanga axis.

The administration said it is building Akwanga to balance the state’s tertiary health architecture, with Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital Lafia serving the South and Federal Medical Centre Keffi serving the West.

He said the new N3.6bn equipment approval will now equip Theatre, Radiology, Cardiology, Laboratory and Accident & Emergency units that were constructed under phase one, positioning DASH Akwanga to handle advanced diagnostics, trauma and specialist referrals that currently travel to Lafia, Keffi or Abuja.

The second phase of the hospital project is estimated at about N11 billion, while the third phase will focus on establishing a major trauma and research centre in Akwanga.