Home Health Nigeria, AFRIEXIM Bank Sign Memorandum of Understanding to End Medical Tourism 

Nigeria, AFRIEXIM Bank Sign Memorandum of Understanding to End Medical Tourism 

Nigeria, AFRIEXIM Bank Sign Memorandum of Understanding to End Medical Tourism 

 

Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja

 

The Federal government of Nigeria is working to end the one billion dollars spent on medical tourism annually.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama disclosed this while signing a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of government with the African Export and Import Bank, AFRIEXIM, for the establishment of the African Medical Centre of Excellence in Abuja.

The $300 million Medical Centre, will cater mostly for unknown tropical diseases which the Minister said is on the increase because Africans have failed in research and development hence the project is a giant leap for Nigeria.

According to him, developed countries claim to assist the less developed countries when in actual fact it is the other way round as the less developed countries have a greater number of experts especially Medical Doctors working in abroad which in itself is technical assistance to those countries.

 

For the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, this is another testimony that Nigeria is concerned about the healthcare of its citizens.

He disclosed that already, the Federal Government had in conjunction with India government, begun an affordable Diagnostic Centre in Kano with state of the art laboratory equipment to cater for the needs of citizens.

 

Earlier, the President of AFRIEXIM Bank, Professor Benedict Oramah, paid glowing tributes to President Muhammadu Buhari administration for accepting to be the host country for other African countries that would house the Medical Centre especially as no human development is possible without quality health care.

 

He said the Medical Centre which will be the first of its kind in the continent will promote international trade in Medical tourism in full spectrum of services in various specialist areas and general healthcare services in addition to training, research and development.

 

It will be recalled that President Buhari had performed the ground breaking ceremony of the project in December, 2021.

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