BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Minister of State for Health & Social Welfare Dr. Tunji Alausa (middle); Permanent Secretary, Daju Kachollom (3rd left); Director Hospital Services Department Dr. Jimoh Salaudeen (2nd left); Managing Director of JNCI, Mrs. Claire Omatseye (4th right), and others at the signing of MoU between the Ministry, GE HealthCare and JNCI in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Federal Government has sealed a deal with GE HealthCare and JNCI Limited to bolster Biomedical Engineering in higher institutions.
Minister of State for Health & Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, who endorsed the agreement on behalf of the Federal Government on Wednesday in Abuja, noted that the move is expected to deepen and strengthen the nation's healthcare system.
News Rider reports that biomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles to solve biological and medical problems in order to improve health care.
The MoU was signed by the Ministry of Health, GE Healthcare and JNCI Limited on behalf of the five Schools of biomedical engineering in Enugu, Maiduguri, Edo, Kaduna and Lagos States.
Alausa pointed out that critical and deliberate initiatives were considered and implemented before signing the MoU, meant to facilitate training for the students.
He said that curriculum development, accreditation of the schools for OND and HND programmes, and funding were the prerequisite needed to resolve the dwindling number of biomedical engineers in the country and enhance their infrastructure.
"The journey of signing the MoU started long ago with series of meetings and diagnostic studies of what our biomedical engineering schools need. We have done curriculum development, thank you GE Healthcare, JNCI for coming to our aid to upgrade our curriculum," he added.
On the opportunities derivable from the capacity building programme, the minister emphasised that engineers of the five biomedical engineering schools will be trained to work as bio-medical engineers.
"We are doing the accreditation of the schools for HND and ON in a very deliberate and calculative way, to ensure that engineers are trained to work as biomedical engineers, and also to expand the opportunity for millions of young men and women to go to schools, and get OND and HND degrees as biomedical engineers.
"In doing this, it will help us as an institution to reduce the cost of care," he said.
To ensure sustainability of the schools' operations, Alausa stated that the ministry will create an Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) codes to facilitate budgetary allocations for the schools in the 2025 fiscal year.
He praised both GE Healthcare, JNCI and Global Fund for committing to train the students.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Daju Kachollom commended the capacity building initiative, adding that it is a continuation of efforts by the ministry to rejig the health sector for optimal service delivery to the citizens.
Managing Director of JNCI, Mrs Claire Omatseye and General Manager GE Healthcare, Dr. George Uduku affirmed that their organisations aligned with the present administration's vision to enhance and improve health care delivery systems in the country.
They confirmed that the signing of the MoU is a testament of their commitment to train five students from each biomedical school of engineering in Enugu, Maiduguri, Edo, Kaduna and Lagos states.
The actualisation of this initiative attests to the fulfillment of campaign promises made by President Bola Tinubu, to improve the health sector and it's infrastructure to boost human capital development.
This was contained in a statement by the Head, Information & PR, Federal Ministry of Health & Social Welfare, Alaba Balogun on Wednesday in Abuja.
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