Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with six of the twelve teaching hospitals to invest $6 million in upgrading their facilities.
NLNG has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with six teaching hospitals chosen from the country’s six geopolitical zones to conduct its multi-billion naira Hospital Support Programme (NLNG HSP).
The NLNG will use this money to fund the construction of key health facilities at teaching and tertiary hospitals across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
Aside the provision of quality medical care for Nigerians, these facilities will facilitate the training of medical professionals and also contribute to the transformation of the medical sector.
The Managing Director of Nigeria LNG, Dr. Phillip Mshelbila, while speaking at the ceremony in Abuja, said the six hospitals were selected as part of the first phase of the NLNG Hospital Support Programme.
Mshelbila said the initiative is NLNG’s long-term response to the needs identified in the medical sector in 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was an urgency to upgrade health facilities to contain the infections surge amongst patients.
According to him, NLNG at the time donated medical equipment and consumables worth over N1.4 billion to some federal and state medical institutions in the company’s host communities.
He added that the Hospital Support Programme, approved by the NLNG Board of Directors, will cost about $500,000 per hospital, with a total outlay of $6 million.
The NLNG MD said: “Specific programmes for the beneficiary institutions will be executed in two phases. For Phase One, the programme will sponsor renovation and re-equipping of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Ward (Block C) at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos State.
“At the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada, we shall sponsor construction and equipping of a modern Maternity and Child Complex, while at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano, the programme will deliver an Occupational Therapy and Neuromodulation Rehabilitation Centre.
“For University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin, Edo State, our target is to achieve the remodelling and conversion of an existing building into a 15-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU). For the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, the programme will provide a six-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with four-bed renal dialysis connected to the existing operating theatre.
“And lastly, in Phase One, the project will provide a Neuro-Surgical Centre for the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar, Cross Rivers State.
“The other six university teaching hospitals to benefit from the programme in Phase Two are Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi; Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH); Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi; Federal Medical Centre, Asaba; University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) in Rivers State.”