President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday asked the Head of Service of the Federation and the Budget Office to increase the personnel and overhead allocations to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).
The president issued the directive at the virtual inauguration of capital projects at UMTH, in response to a specific request by the board and management of the hospital.
According to a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, Buhari said increase in personnel and overhead allocations to UMTH would enhance services provided in the school.
Other landmark projects commissioned by the president at the event included the newly constructed and fully equipped 150-bed trauma centre, a new General Outpatient Department, a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) complex and a multi-purpose auditorium and conference centre constructed and furnished by Governor Babagana Zulum.
Buhari also commissioned a new hostel at the UMTH School of Nursing, constructed by the federal government.
He said the value of the projects executed at the UMTH, which he described as centre of excellence in infectious diseases and immunology in Nigeria, to the nation’s health care system could not be underestimated, particularly in the era of global health system challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
He described the completion of the capital projects as a reflection of federal government’s commitment to sustain development in the North-east and other parts of the country and simultaneously promoting economic growth, peace and progress.
‘’Emerging diseases have made it necessary for all nations to increase and improve resource application for coping with the challenges or adapting to the ‘new normal.‘’This goes on in Borno State side by side with efforts to tackle insurgency and criminal activities,’’ he said.
Buhari also spoke on the 150-bed trauma centre constructed along with a helipad, saying it will provide modern multidisciplinary care facilities to injured persons from within and outside Maiduguri, in addition to reducing the need for referral to other centres.
