The approvals include a N302.3bn cancer institute and a N69bn neuroscience facility, as FEC also moves to decriminalise attempted suicide.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a N558 billion healthcare infrastructure programme, covering a major redevelopment of the National Hospital, Abuja, and the construction of a new National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT) centre.
Ali Pate, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, disclosed the approvals to State House correspondents on Wednesday, after the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Pate said the National Hospital, established about 25 years ago with the goal of becoming a quaternary healthcare institution, one offering the most complex, specialised level of medical care, had not received the level of investment needed to fulfil that original vision, and that the latest approvals followed a presidential directive to improve healthcare infrastructure nationwide.
What’s being built at the National Hospital
The National Hospital projects account for about N255.66 billion of the approved funding. The council approved N18.74 billion for refitting the hospital’s administrative and management block, awarded to Visible Construction Limited, and N64.92 billion for the construction of modular clinics and a theatre complex, awarded to Strabag Construction Limited, intended to provide specialised facilities across various medical specialties.
A further N103 billion was approved for the construction of a new hospital wing, awarded to CBC Global Civil Construction Limited with a 24-month completion period, alongside N69 billion for a Neuroscience Institute, also awarded to CBC Global Civil and Building Construction Limited.
Pate said the neuroscience facility would provide specialised infrastructure for neurosurgery, radiology, interventional procedures and rehabilitation, treating conditions such as stroke, brain tumours, and other diseases affecting the brain and nervous system. “Quality healthcare is not cheap. To have the healthcare system we need, Nigeria has to invest in it,” Pate said.
Cancer centre to be completed in three years
FEC also approved a N302.3 billion contract for the design, construction, furnishing, equipping, supervision and commissioning of the new NICRAT centre, awarded to CBC Global Civil and Building Construction Nigeria Limited, with a 36-month completion period.
Pate said the project would strengthen Nigeria’s capacity for cancer research, treatment, innovation and professional training, and would serve as the country’s flagship national institution for cancer care, noting that three upgraded cancer centres in Katsina, Benin and Enugu have already been completed and launched under the wider programme.
Pate said the National Hospital and NICRAT projects are funded through appropriations made by the National Assembly to the relevant agencies rather than directly through the Federal Ministry of Health, with appropriations already made in the 2025 and 2026 budgets.
He said the contracts underwent competitive procurement overseen by the Bureau of Public Procurement, which reviewed the awards without objection.
“Our goal is to ensure that they are executed, and that Nigerians can be able to see a transformation of the National Hospital, as well as a befitting cancer centre here at NICRAT,” Pate said.
At the same briefing, Pate disclosed that FEC had also approved an amendment to the National Mental Health Act 2021 to decriminalise attempted suicide in Nigeria, shifting response from prosecution to medical and psychological care, to be transmitted to the National Assembly as an executive bill.
