Nigeria: Ongoing Reforms in Edo’ll Save Nigeria $40bn Spent On Medical Tourism, Education – Obaseki

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said his administration is changing the narrative in the state’s education and health sectors, noting that the holistic reforms in the sectors will help Nigeria save the $40 billion spent to access healthcare and education.

Obaseki stated this while fielding questions from journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital after an inspection tour of the state-owned Stella Obasanjo Hospital and Edo State School of Health Technology, which are currently being upgraded to world-class standards.

He said his administration is changing the healthcare narrative in the state, making the state capital a healthcare hub by improving the health infrastructure and bringing it to a world-class standard.

According to Obaseki, “As a government, we promised the people to change the narrative of the health sector in the State. We are making Edo and Benin in particular a healthcare hub by making sure we improve the health infrastructure and bring it up to world-class standards.

“Healthcare is more about services and human capacity. While we are emphasizing the hospital, the primary health care centers and clinics, we are also ensuring that we create the institutions that will train the quality people we need to provide the quality care.

“The School of Health Technology is supposed to provide manpower for our primary healthcare system and our healthcare system as a whole. This is why we are making it a priority and making sure that the infrastructure is ready on time for accreditation so that we can start the institution afresh before I leave office.”

On the progress of the revamp of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, the governor said, “the Out-Patient Department (OPD) is ready and the Inpatient Department is still under construction.”