Mallam Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), yesterday laid the foundation for the construction of a 200-bed Emergency and Infectious Disease Hospital in Kaita, Katsina State.
Speaking during the ground breaking of the project in Kaita on Saturday, the NNPC Boss, said the project would be completed within the stipulated timeframe of 18 months.
The hospital, being built at the cost of N21 billion, would provide services to patients in the OM North West zone. It is one of the 12 hospitals being constructed by the NNPC across the six geo-political zones of the country. Kyari explained that the project being executed by the NNPC, Total and other oil and Gas companies operating in the country would be completed in 18 months.
Kyari further stated that the project when completed, would provide medical consumables, logistics and inpatients support system to cater for the residents within the North-west region.
He said Katsina State is among the 12 states selected for the humanitarian project based on objectivity, epicentre and population, adding that “beyond Covid-19, the centre may focus on lassa fever and anything that can be infectious to our society”.
“This project will be delivered. We are doing it in 12 states of the six geopolitical zones of this country. We are trusting that this project will be run efficiently by the Katsina State Government.
“This project is practically founded by the Federal Government of Nigeria because it is financed by our production sharing contract arrangement, which means that NNPC will pay for 100 per cent of this contract at the end of the day,”
Speaking earlier, the Katsina State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mannir Yakubu, said the construction of the infectious disease hospital would complement the effort of the state government in providing quality healthcare services to the people. Yakubu thanked the NNPC for the intervention and prayed that the project be completed on record time.
