From Atiku Sarki, Abuja
To enhance the capacity of Schools of Bio-Medical Engineering, the Federal Ministry of Health & Social Welfare signed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) to deepen and strengthen the nation’s healthcare systems.
This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday to newsmen in Abuja by the Head of information and Public Relations in the ministry, Alaba Balogun said the actualization of this initiative attests to the fulfilment of campaign promises of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, to improve the health sector and its infrastructure as a major contributor to boost human capital development.
Dr Tunji Alausa, Honourable Minister of State for Health & Social Welfare revealed this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) between the Ministry, GE HealthCare and JNCI Ltd, on behalf of the five (5) Schools of Biomedical Engineering at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
Elaborating further, the Honourable Minister highlighted the critical and deliberate initiatives that were considered and implemented, which finally birthed the signing of a Memorandum to build the training capacity of the students.
Dr Alausa cited curriculum development, accreditation of the schools for OND and HND programmes and funding as a requisite antidote to arrest the dwindling number of Biomedical engineers in the country and enhance their infrastructure.
”The journey of signing the MoU started long ago with a series of meetings and diagnostic studies of what our Biomedical Engineering Schools need. We have done curriculum development; thank you, GEHelathCare and JNCI, for coming to our aid to upgrade our curriculum,” he added.
Speaking on the opportunities and hanging fruits derivable from the capacity building programme, Dr Alausa emphasized that engineers of the five Biomedical Engineering Schools will be trained to work as bio-medical engineers.
”We have also worked on accrediting the schools for HND, not just for OND. We are doing this in a very deliberate and calculative way to make sure that engineers are trained to work as Biomedical Engineers. And also to expand the opportunity to millions of young men and women so that we can expand capacity, train more, and provide more opportunities to grow young men and women to go to schools and get degrees in OND and HND as Biomedical Engineers.
And as they do that, they can come out, confident that they can do the work. In doing this, it helps us as an institution, and society in reducing the cost of care,” the Minister further affirmed.
To ensure the sustainability of the Schools’ operations, the Minister pointed out that the Ministry will create an Economic Recovery and Growth Plan ( ERGP) code to facilitate a streamlined process for budgetary allocations in the 2025 fiscal year for the schools.
The Honourable Minister commended both GE Healthcare, JNCI and Global Fund for committing to training the students.
Speaking earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Daju Kachollom mni, commended the capacity-building initiative, stressing that it is a continuation of efforts by the Ministry to rejig the health sector for optimal service delivery to the citizenry.
In their remarks, the Managing Director JNCI, Mrs Claire Omatseye and General Manager GEHealthcare, Dr George Uduku affirmed that their organizations align with the present administration’s vision to enhance and improve healthcare delivery systems in the country, stressing, that the signing of the MoU is a testament of their commitment to training five students from each Biomedical school of engineering in Enugu, Maiduguri, Edo, Zaria and Lagos.
