Tinubu commissions health facilities across Nigeria

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja

President Bola Tinubu commissioned new and upgraded health infrastructure across all six geopolitical zones of Nigeria on Friday, creating the largest single‑day commissioning of federal health investments in the country’s history.

The events were part of a nationwide commissioning programme celebrating the third anniversary of his administration.

In a statement released Friday night by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the President inaugurated the newly completed Bola Tinubu Specialist Complex at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja. The two‑storey facility is purpose‑built for integrated specialist and VIP healthcare and includes eight consulting rooms, twin theatre suites, dedicated Ophthalmology and Ear, Nose and Throat departments, a fully equipped laboratory, a pharmacy, nine VIP wards, four general wards, and a private and VIP clinic.

At the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare headquarters, the President also launched the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) Emergency Response Fleet – the largest single‑day deployment of emergency medical transport in the country’s history.

The fleet consists of 145 tricycle ambulances, six boat ambulances, and 79 brand‑new emergency ambulances for federal tertiary hospitals, along with 45 laptops, 20 printers, and 320 mobile phones to support the digital coordination platform. The fleet will operate under the SAVEMAMA programme to deliver emergency obstetric and newborn care services to underserved communities, including riverine, rural, and hard‑to‑reach areas.

The President later launched a fleet of compressed natural gas (CNG)‑powered ambulances for all 73 federal tertiary health facilities in the country at a ceremony on the Lekki‑Epe Expressway in Lagos. Delivered under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and empanelled by NEMSAS, the CNG ambulances will lower fuel costs for federal tertiary facilities, reduce emissions, and strengthen the referral architecture linking secondary and tertiary hospitals.

In the North‑West, three state Polio Emergency Operations Centres (PEOCs) – in Katsina, Kano and Sokoto – were commissioned. Originally established in 2013 with support from the Gates Foundation and managed by eHealth Africa, the three centres have been expanded, renovated and re‑equipped to strengthen each state’s coordination of immunisation, disease surveillance and outbreak response. The Kano PEOC is housed at the Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital, Nassarawa; the Katsina PEOC at the SPHCDA premises, Murtala Muhammed Way; and the Sokoto PEOC at the Epidemiology Unit of the Specialist Hospital, Sultan Abubakar Road.

Also in Kano, the president commissioned the newly constructed Gadon Kaya Primary Health Centre in the Gwale Local Government Area. The facility was built under the Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Services (IMPACT) Project. This World Bank‑supported intervention has revitalised nearly 3,000 primary health centres across the country over the last two years. In the South‑South, the Aboh Primary Health Centre in the Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State was also commissioned under the same IMPACT programme.

The President further commissioned three tertiary hospital projects: the new two‑storey Laboratory Complex at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Akwa Ibom State – housing 16 dedicated laboratories, seminar rooms, a library, call rooms and staff offices; the new Administrative Complex at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku‑Ozalla, Enugu State – inaugurated through a hybrid virtual ceremony; and the new Pharmacy Quality Control Laboratory at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, Zaria, Kaduna State – which provides regulatory‑grade quality assurance for every medicine entering the hospital, operating through Microbiology, Chemistry and Instrumentation units in full compliance with British Pharmacopoeia and United States Pharmacopoeia specifications.

In the North‑East, the president commissioned the newly constructed Mental Health and Drug Rehabilitation Centre at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital – a 50‑bed specialist facility built to care for patients with psychological and drug‑related conditions in a region that has borne the heaviest weight of conflict‑related trauma in the country.

In the South‑West, the president commissioned the Lagos Immunisation Supply Chain Hub at the Federal Medical Stores in Oshodi. Constructed under the World Bank‑supported IMPACT Project, the Hub is the first completed facility under Nigeria’s new Three‑Hub Immunisation Supply Chain Model, designed to serve the South‑West and South‑South geopolitical zones.

During the virtual commissioning, President Tinubu said the day’s health investments represent the most ambitious renewal of the country’s healthcare infrastructure in a generation.

“We are determined to give Nigerians the kind of care that, for too long, only those who could travel abroad enjoyed,” the president said. “From the rivers of the Delta to the streets of Lagos, from rural Sokoto to tertiary Maiduguri, our emergency response system must work as one. Today, we put another major piece of that system in place.”

The President commended the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, the management of NEMSAS, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, eHealth Africa, the state governors, and the federal teaching hospitals that delivered the projects.

Figures released by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare on the occasion show that, under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, nearly 3,000 primary health centres have been revitalised under the IMPACT programme, 27 Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care sites have been established, and 1,602 Level 1 and 1,360 Level 2 health facilities have been revitalised across the six geopolitical zones in the past two years.

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