By Deborah Aivihenyo

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Pate says three major cancer facilities with equipment investments will be commissioned by May 2025.

Pate made this known during an interview on Monday.

He said for the first time in Nigeria’s history, six major cancer infrastructure, and equipment investments were approved by President Bola Tinubu early last year, of which they are already underway, and three of them will be ready by May 2025, to be commissioned.

“So that those who are suffering from cancer, that is the high level of care that is needed, it is a tertiary service. We will have the linear accelerators, the brachytherapy, and other diagnostic equipment to allow them to afford good quality cancer care in Nigeria in those six facilities.”

The minister noted that the government also flagged off 10 other major cancer diagnostic centres across the country five months ago.

He stated that 201 tertiary facilities have had infrastructural upgrades and equipment, including the Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan, Computed Tomography scans, and anaesthesia equipment in the last year.

“We are going to do more in 2025, but the human resources and the training of that also is an important element; that goes beyond the primary health care, and the Federal Government is investing in it.

“We have expanded the federal facilities. In the last year, the Federal Medical Centre, Epe, in Lagos, (there is a) new one in Ekiti, and the President just approved a new Federal Teaching Hospital in Akure, Federal Medical Centre in Southern Kaduna, in Kafanchan. (There is an) upgrade of hospitals in Nasarawa, the specialist hospital in Keffi is now a teaching hospital, and the Federal University of Health Sciences, Azare, has a teaching hospital, which was upgraded by this President.

“So we are expanding the tertiary hospitals’ capacity in Nigeria because, for a very long time, the capacity that we had when we were 150 million people is literally what we still have when we are about 230 million people. So, we’re expanding that, it’s not enough, but we need to do that.”