Kano state government has awarded a N2. 4bn contract for construction of a state-of-the-art cancer center at the Muhammadu Buhari Specialist hospital in the state.
The centre is the first of its kind in any public hospital in Nigeria.
The project is coming on the heels of a visit to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, Melbourne, Australia, one of the world’s leading cancer research education and treatment centers, by Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje recently.
Speaking when he inspected the proposed project site, Ganduje explained that the project implementation would be supervised by consultants from Varian Medicals, to ensure that it is of international standard.
“We are concerned about the growing number of cancer patients and the sad fact that many of them cannot access effective treatment, hence suffering and even death”.
“Importantly, because we have the largest population in Nigeria, it implies that the incidence of cancer in the state will be higher than most states in the country.
“The closest place cancer patients from Kano can get treatment for cancer now is Abuja. With this center at Muhammadu Buhari Specialist Hospital, patients can get specialized and cheap cancer treatment diagnosis and treatment, in line with WHO recommendation,” he said.
Ganduje said at the moment, Nigeria with a population of close to 200 million people had only nine cancer centers of which only three are functioning.
He said, “The country also has 11 cancer registries located mostly on tertiary hospitals across the country. Most of the registries are underfunded and screening program is at minimal level.”
In his remarks, the Chief Executive officer of Bico Nigeria Ltd. said, the company handling the project, Engr. Abubakar Kabir said the work would be carried out in collaboration with a multinational firm, Varian Medicals.
Kabir explained that the project would be completed withing 36 weeks from the date of foundation laying.
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