President Muhammadu Buhari has approved funding for six medical simulation, research and training facilities in Colleges of Medicine, through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
TETFund’s Director of Public Affairs, Mrs. Ngoba Briggs, in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, said the facilities would aid the setting up of molecular science laboratories with capacity for testing and diagnosing of COVID-19, Lassa fever and other related viral diseases.
Briggs said Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, had directed the Executive Secretary of the fund, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, to select a university in each of the six geo-political zones, where the projects would be executed.
She said TETFund had been mandated to establish 12 medical centres of excellence to be hosted by first, second and third generation universities.
Briggs said the centres of excellence, according to the directive, should be distributed in such a way that two must be sited in each geo-political zone.
Also, Mr. Buhari Mikailu, Director, Physical Infrastructure Development, Tetfund, said the future plan was to site additional centres of excellence in state universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
Mikailu said areas of focus of the centres were in line with contemporary practice and technologies in science-based disciplines.
He said the approval was initiated through the recommendation of the fund’s Board of Trustees (BoT), and endorsement of Adamu.