Owner of Sahad Stores to establish university of medical sciences in Nasarawa

A business mogul and sole owner of Sahad Stores, Alhaji Ibrahim Mijinyawa has selected Nasarawa State to host his university of medical sciences.

Dr. Shamsuddeen Ahmed Aliyu, Executive Vice Chairman in charge of Healthcare Operations, diclosed this when he led a delegation from the Sahad Hospital Abuja, on a courtesy call at the Government House on Tuesday.

Dr. Aliyu said they were at the Government House to inform Governor Abdullahi Sule of their decision to establish a university of medical sciences along the Abuja-Keffi expressway and to formally request the state government to provide them with a piece of land to enable them kickstart the construction of the university.

According to the EVC, the owner of Sahad with business presence in several Northern cities to include Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Dutse, Maiduguri and Bauchi, has now extended his services into healthcare with the sole aim of giving back to the society.

He said they were under instructions from the owner to charge fifty percent less that what obtains in other private healthcare facilities in order to make healthcare affordable and accessible to the people.

“The sole aim of going into healthcare is to give back to the community. It is actually not for profit. We don’t declare it not for profit for sustainability. We want the hospital to grow and also build other hospitals across the Northern part of Nigeria. His words when we commissioned the hospital when I showed him the hospital tariffs he said whatever they are charging N20, 000 anywhere, we should charge N10, 000. That is the sole aim,” he said.

He disclosed further that the Sahad Hospital has already established a college of nursing, with 150 students, with plans to start training in medical sciences, focusing on internship, and residency training, before expanding to cover medicine, pharmacy and medical lab sciences.

“But the requirements from the NUC, there is need for a big land to be able to build a university. Abuja is already filled up. We have seen the troop of services we are providing for Nasarawa State. A lot of people are going to Sahad Hospital. We have a lot of nursing students that come from Nasarawa State. We believe it is the right decision to look this way and find a piece of land to build our university of medical sciences,” he said.

Responding, Governor Abdullahi Sule thanked the owner and management of the Sahad Hospital for selecting Nasarawa State to establish their university of medical sciences.

Governor Sule particularly appreciated Alhaji Ibrahim Mijinyawa for giving back to the society through the establishment of the Sahad Hospital in Abuja.

“Thank you for your kind words about our state and thank you for what you are giving back to Nigeria and to humanity. Whatever is the cost of medical services, your hospital should charge a fraction of that. That is the way to give back to society,” he stated.

Drawing from his business background, the Governor however harped on the need to make the Sahad Hospital sustainable.

“As a businessman I do understand you have to make the resources also to sustain the operations and the maintenance because daily the buildings and other equipment would be deteriorating and you have to be able to maintain them. We perfectly understand that and we commend him for giving back to the society. I commend everyone of you for sharing his dreams and his wisdom. I want to thank you also for selecting Nasarawa State for the establishment of the university of medical sciences,” he said.

He said the idea of establishing a university of medical sciences fully align with his vision to build two niche universities in Nasarawa State namely a university of engineering and a university of medical sciences.

“These are universities that are not going to be having ten thousand students or so. You are looking for just a few competent students, most likely not even more than a thousand. Because you have your facilities, such as hospitals, clinics and college of nursing, definitely you already have immediate employment for some of the graduates. Of course, you will end up having the best. By the time you have few people, you have the quality time to train those people and be focused and those specialties,” he added.

Governor Sule said the university of medical sciences is coming at a time his administration is upgrading the state’s specialist hospital in Akwanga, coupled with the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Keffi and the University of Lafia Teaching Hospital, which would combine to serve as outlet for the university of medical sciences.

Regarding the request for land, he assured that his administration would do everything possible to provide them with a land but advised the delegation to consider either Kokona or Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Areas to locate their medical university as land along the Abuja-Keffi expressway may not be easy to get.