The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, has announced that three major cancer treatment facilities equipped with state-of-the-art technology will be inaugurated by May 2025.
Speaking on Channels Television’s *Sunrise Daily* on Monday, Pate highlighted that this development is part of a broader effort to improve cancer care and healthcare infrastructure in Nigeria.
### **Key Highlights**
1. **Cancer Treatment Facilities:**
– Six major cancer infrastructure and equipment investments were approved by President Bola Tinubu in 2024.
– Three of these facilities, equipped with advanced tools such as linear accelerators and brachytherapy units, will be operational by May 2025.
– These facilities aim to provide affordable, high-quality cancer care within Nigeria.
2. **Expansion of Diagnostic Centres:**
– Ten new cancer diagnostic centres were flagged off five months ago to improve early detection and diagnosis nationwide.
3. **Tertiary Healthcare Upgrades:**
– 201 tertiary healthcare facilities across Nigeria have received upgrades, including advanced imaging equipment like MRI and CT scanners.
– New federal medical facilities have been established, including:
– Federal Medical Centre, Epe (Lagos).
– A Federal Teaching Hospital in Akure (Ondo).
– Federal Medical Centre in Kafanchan (Southern Kaduna).
– Upgraded hospitals in Keffi (Nasarawa) and Azare (Bauchi).
4. **Cancer Statistics in Nigeria:**
– In 2022, Nigeria recorded 127,763 new cancer cases and 79,542 deaths.
– Breast cancer was the most prevalent, accounting for 25.3% of cases, followed by prostate cancer (14.1%) and cervical cancer (10.7%).
Pate emphasized the importance of scaling healthcare capacity to match Nigeria’s growing population, now at 230 million:
> “We’re expanding tertiary hospital capacity. What existed when we were 150 million people is still what we had until now. It’s not enough, but we’re making significant progress.”
The government’s efforts to invest in cancer care and tertiary health infrastructure aim to curb the rising cancer burden and improve overall healthcare delivery in the country.
