Minister of State For FCT Commissions Digital Cervical Cancer Screening Centre Donated By OCI Foundation

Minister of State for FCT, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu has officially commissioned a free digital cervical cancer screening centre donated by OCI Foundation in Abuja which is first of its kind in Nigeria.

The project which is in partnership with the FCT Primary Healthcare Board with the support from First Ladies Against Cancer (FLAC) seeks to empower, lift and save the lives of Nigerians.

The project uses Gynocular device instead of the digital technological tool to provide what has been described as most reliable and advanced cervical cancer screening test to the teeming Nigerian populace.

Speaking at the project commission in Apo Abuja, the Minister lauded the founder of OCI Foundation, Dr. Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora for the initiative, saying he has further bridged the gap in the quest for effective health care for Nigerians.

She expressed the readiness of the FCT ministry to offer the needed assistance in ensuring that affordable health care delivery is made available to residents of the nation’s capital, adding that the initiative by OCI Foundation is in line with the vision of the ministry.

In his remarks, the founder and president of the Foundation, Associate Professor Chris Ifediora said the project has taken over 15 months of intensive hard work to come to reality, expressing gratitude to his Swedish partners who manufactured the Gynocular equipment.

“In the last 15 months, we have nurtured this dream, today we live this dream, it has been a turtuous and sometimes an uncertain journey.It has been a financially tasking journey.

“We have had to pushed through difficulties and challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic along side those created by humans. Many were unforseen but others we were aware of but in any case, our resolved ambition to deliver on this life-saving initiative for the teeming Nigerians remains resolute, it has remained unwavering.

“We expect to have the first screening and result from this centre within the next four weeks. We are ready and have invested in the trainings both physical and virtual that would help us deliver on this.

“We have put together a team of doctors and nurses who are committed to this project as we are. Some of them are here today, some of them will still be here after today but most of them would never be here.

“Most of the doctors that would be instrumental to the day to day running of this centre will never physically work in the location of this facility. We have leveraged on technology to deliver what is nothing short of groundbreaking” he said.

The centre which is first of two pilot centres will have its second one sited in Anambra later in the year while the OCI Foundation plans at least one Gynocular centre in every geopolitical zones of the country, thereafter each state would have its own.

He commended the FCT Minister for State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu for the partnership the ministry has offered in making the project a reality.

OCI Foundation sponsored Nigerian National Project for cervical screening, using a digital, state-of-the-art, portable technology, the Gynocular.

It is part of the OCl Foundation’s Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health Campaign that targets teenagers and young adults, and uses technology as a game-changing weapon in the fight against breast and cervical cancers.

Abujapress

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