The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board(JAMB) has partnered with Project Cure in United States of America to facilitate the provision of medical equipment worth several billions to 12 teaching hospitals across six geopolitical zones in the country.

The teaching hospitals are: North West -Yusuf Maitama Sule University Teaching Hospital, Kano State and Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, Zamfara; North Central- University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Kwara State and University of Medical Sciences, Otukpo, Benue State; South East

University of Nigeria Nsukka Teaching Hospital, Nsukka, Enugu State and Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Abia State.

Others are: South-west -Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Lagos State and Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State; South –south – Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and Irrua Specialist Hospital, Irrua, Edo State (Opted out).

Speaking at the unveiling of the medical equipment for the first beneficiary, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital(UITH) over the weekend, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede said:

“The provision of the medical equipment to the affected teaching hospitals is to improve the health care delivery in many benefiting countries of the world.”

Among the medical equipment include angle poise lamp, ventilator, consumables, mattress, OG couch, gynecology chair, treatment table, treadmill machine, crutches, ICU beds, urinary catheters, defibrillator machines, laparoscopy machines, needle and syringes, wheel chairs, oxygen concentrator, suction machines and endoscopy machines.

He said: “It is no gainsaying that the COVID-19 pandemic provided the much-needed impetus for countries around the globe to do the needful by breaking barriers and tapping into available opportunities.

“For us in Nigeria, the pandemic served as a wake-up call that opened our consciousness to the need for adequately equipped public health institutions to complement our highly acknowledged skilled force of medical personnel.

“It is in pursuit of this noble goal that JAMB, in its wisdom, decided to enter into a partnership with a grant agency in the United States of America to equip 12 tertiary health institutions in Nigeria.

“This is premised on our fervent belief that we could address the deficits in this particular sector of our nation if every segment of the society contributes its quota no matter how little to confronting the lack in the critical areas of our society, such as health, food and education.”

Oloyede added: “Permit me to recall that the partnership with Project C.U.R.E began in 2019 when a delegation from the Board travelled to the United States of America to explore the possibility of establishing in the USA, another foreign prometric centre for its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as is the case in about ten other countries.

“It was in the course of that exploratory trip that the delegation led by a Deputy Director came across a well-established grant agency Project C.U.R.E which offers donation of quality medical equipment which had contributed significantly to improve the health care delivery in many benefiting countries.

“The information made available to the Board through the delegation was that Project C.U.R.E supplies free medical equipment to needy facilities across the globe and that all that is required of the recipient health facilities is to provide logistics to convey the equipment from Project C.U.R.E warehouse to their locations anywhere in the world.

“JAMB decided to key into this opportunity as part of its corporate social responsibility towards its fatherland and to boost the capacity of the health sector in the country.”

The Registrar noted further that, “the unveiling of the first container being delivered to the University of Ilorin today would be followed by others which are lined up to receive their own consignments in due course.”

Oloyede added: “The intervention of the Board in the area of health care delivery is to support government’s efforts aimed at addressing the huge medical infrastructural gap.”

Also speaking, a former chairman of the Board, a renowned medical doctor, Dr. Emmanuel Ndukwe, described the medical intervention as the beginning of the journey towards checking medical tourism in Nigeria.