The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, has said it is planning an aggressive Healthcare expansion.
The management of NSIA disclosed this on Monday when it received members of the House of Representatives who were in Lagos to inspect projects undertaken by the Authority and their impact on the economy.
Key areas of focus for the Lagos visits were Healthcare, Infrastructure, and Agriculture.
The Ad-hoc Committee was constituted by the House of Representatives to investigate the activities of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) since the inception of the Authority.
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The members of the House commenced their visit at the NSIA – LUTH Cancer Centre where the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Ademorin Kuye, said the lawmakers were impressed with the quality of service being rendered to Nigerians at the Cancer Centre.
A statement by NSIA said: “Since inception, healthcare has been a keen area of focus for the Authority, deriving from this, the NSIA Healthcare Development Investment Company was established to catalyze private sector investments to address the infrastructure gaps in the healthcare sector, improve manpower, and forge strategic collaborations to advance healthcare indicators in the country.
“Established in 2019, the NLCC – an out-patient cancer center equipped with modern medical infrastructure – has attended to over 10,000 unique persons living with cancer and has also deepened the capacity of medical and non-medical professionals within the oncology space.
“Over the years, NLCC has reduced capital flight from medical tourism occasioned by cancer, created direct and indirect jobs and improved access to quality cancer care, thereby expanding possibilities for people living with cancer.
“In addition to NLCC, the NSIA has also invested in two modern medical diagnostic centers collocated within the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and Federal Medical Center, Umuahia respectively.”
According to the statement, NSIA is now in the process of scaling these interventions, with three additional Oncology centres, 23 additional diagnostic centres and seven catheterization laboratories across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
NSIA’s wholly-owned medical services portfolio company, Medserve has been set up to implement these projects.
The Committee Chairman said the facilities align with the vision and commitment of the government to ensure affordable and efficient cancer care for Nigerians.
He explained, “We are investigating how much has been put into the development of this place. We have seen a lot of modern medical equipment that has been brought to this place.
“We are also seeing the quality of service being rendered to Nigerians and we are impressed and we will go back to report to the entire parliament and tell them that we need more of this in other places.”
Also speaking during the visit by the lawmakers, the Managing Director, NSIA Healthcare Development Investment Company, Dr Tolulope Adewole, revealed ongoing expansion by the Authority, as part of efforts to contribute towards addressing the country’s healthcare challenges.
“We have started the expansion plan already, We had MoUs signed by different states, signed with different tertiary hospitals, and some of the equipment needed are ready to be disbursed.
“We hope to go live in the next 24 months. We have a project in which we are building four diagnostic hospitals, in each geo-political zone and that will be done in two phases.
“We are upscaling from one oncology center to four: one in the north, east, and finally Abuja. The cost is variable, so we can’t say what it will all cost us,” he added.
The Committee also visited Golden Fertilizer Company Limited – a blending plant resuscitated under the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative managed by the NSIA.
The PFI was designed in 2016 to consistently deliver commercially significant quantities of affordable, high-quality fertilizer to Nigerian farmers.
