Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Friday laid the foundation for the state’s Cancer and Diagnostic Facility, a legacy health project that the governor said came with huge socioeconomic impacts for the state and the well-being of its people.
The facility is being funded with the N2.5 billion donation by the Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative, which is owned by the BUA Group.
The governor commended Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu for the choice of Kwara to host the facility, announcing that the project will be named Abdul Samad Rabiu Medical Centre (ASR).
“I commend the ASR Africa for the choice of Kwara to host this unique facility, which clearly bolsters our standing in the comity of states in Nigeria. By the time the facility is completed, it will become a first of its kind in north central and a major referral centre that would attract tens of thousands of people from across Nigeria and beyond every year”, the governor said.
The governor promised to give ASR Africa and BUA Group every support required to ensure the project is completed on time.
“Cancer has become a major health issue in the 21st century. Globally, cancer is a major leading health problem with an estimated 10 million incidents and 6 million cancer deaths annually.
According to the National Institute of Health, Nigeria records an estimated 72,000 cancer deaths annually, and 102,000 new cases are diagnosed from its population of 200 million people,” he added.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Ahmed El-Imam, in her remarks, said about one in four deaths in Nigeria is due to non-communicable diseases like cancers, commending AbdulRazaq for his foresight and how he succeeded in attracting the facility to the state.
El-Imam said the siting of the oncology centre in the state will save Nigeria from its annual loss of multimillion dollars to medical tourism which is chiefly in search of cancer-related treatments abroad.
“It is equally a commendable gesture that our governor motivated the health workforce handsomely by implementing 100 per cent CONMESS (Consolidated Medical Salary Structure) for doctors (elevating their salaries to the same scale as federal doctors and CONHESS (Consolidated Health Salary Structure) for nurses)”, she added.
She said the government is similarly working out better welfare for other categories of health workers in the state.
