Nigeria’s healthcare sector has secured $2.2 billion to boost the nation’s healthcare system and to train about 120,000 health workers to ensure national health coverage, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reveals.

On Thursday, President Tinubu officially inaugurated the African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) in Abuja, describing the project as a monument to African resilience and innovation, and a bold step towards Nigeria’s emergence as a global healthcare hub.

He disclosed that the country has secured over $2.2 billion in health sector commitments through the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, launched by his administration in December 2023.

The initiative, which is already underway, aims to renovate over 17,000 primary health centres, train 120,000 frontline health workers, and double national health insurance coverage within three years.

The Vice President, Kassim Shettima, who represented Tinubu at the event, stated that there is a “collective refusal to accept medical vulnerability as destiny.”

The President narrated reforms and investments made since he took office two years ago, including the signing of an Executive Order to unlock the healthcare value chain and the launch of the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC).

These policies, Tinubu said, “have intensified local pharmaceutical production, improved regulatory systems, and expanded access to diagnostics.”

According to Tinubu, “But our efforts did not end there. In December 2023, we launched the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative. That initiative secured over $2.2 billion in health sector commitments, with clear, measurable targets: to renovate over 17,000 primary health centres, train 120,000 frontline health workers, and double health insurance coverage within three years. These are not aspirations. These are milestones already in motion.”

The President noted that the AMCE, a state-of-the-art facility developed by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in partnership with King’s College Hospital, London, would serve as a leading centre for advanced treatment, medical training, and research.

According to him, the facility hosts the largest stem cell laboratory in West Africa. It plans to expand to include a teaching hospital, nursing school, and residential quarters for medical personnel.

He said the initiative has laid a foundation for a new generation of medical professionals in Nigeria and has given hope that the ‘Japa’ syndrome will soon be put to an end.

“We are not gathered here because we lack hospitals. Far from it. We are here because the pursuit of excellence is endless. We are gathered because we refuse to accept mediocrity as our destiny.

“I am also proud that Nigeria now hosts the largest stem cell laboratory in West Africa, located within this Centre. With your planned Medical and Nursing School on this campus, and with partners ranging from King’s College London to the University of Wisconsin, you are laying the foundation for a new generation of African medical specialists—specialists who will no longer be exported but empowered at home,” he added.

Paying tribute to Afreximbank’s President, Prof. Benedict Oramah, Tinubu said, “I must pay tribute to Afreximbank and its visionary President, Professor Benedict Oramah, for seeing what many dared not dream. This is what becomes possible when institutions rise to African challenges with African solutions.”
Tinubu assured continued government support for the initiative, saying it was a strategic investment in Nigeria’s future.