FG, US, GE sign N2.3bn agreement for health equipment

The agreement was forged at the World Economic Forum in Abuja last week. An initial $20m, or about N2.3billion, will fund a healthy imagination Mother & Child Initiative to support ongoing programme to save a million lives before 2016. “It brings together technology, the idea of involving health workers and the idea of training midwives […]

The agreement was forged at the World Economic Forum in Abuja last week.
An initial $20m, or about N2.3billion, will fund a healthy imagination Mother & Child Initiative to support ongoing programme to save a million lives before 2016.
“It brings together technology, the idea of involving health workers and the idea of training midwives and portable sonography in obstetrics,” said health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.    
It is hoped portable scan machines could improve maternal in the next five years, he said, insisting other investors are welcome into the partnership.
A remainder $1.5m, some N247.5m, is to be spent over three years as grant to train biomedical engineers at Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
The grant from GE is to “support ongoing commitments to support better clinical and patient outcomes for nigeria,” said Farid Fezoua, president of GE HealthCare Africa.
The firm cited estimates that suggest 50% of medical equipment is out of service at any one time in Nigeria.
Training equipment engineers helped reduce out-of-service medical equipment by 7.6% in places GE has worked, said Dr David Barash, medical officer at GE.