The Proprietor of the proposed Dr Umar Sandah College of Health Technology Lokoja Dr Jummai Ahmadu has said they are ready to established a state of the art health institution in Kogi State that would address the problem of manpower deficit being faced in the health sector across the country.
Dr Ahmadu stated this in Lokoja while interacting with Journalists shortly after the proprietors of the proposed institution made their presentation on the floor of the Kogi State House of Assembly during a public hearing on the bill for a law establishing the institution.
She stated that the bill when passed into Law would give them the right that will enable them to carry out the work they are going to do in the areas of providing skills and in the area of human capital development as well as introducing state of the art technology to ensure that the institution produce students that can compete favourably with their counterparts across the world.
His words “This is particularly important because when you look at the indices of human capital development any where in the world , health is the key part of it and we also like to key into the health programme of Kogi state and the federal government because health is critical and crucial to human beings.
“You are a living witness to japa syndrome where health care providers leaves the country in drove, this has contributed to the dearth of qualified and availability of health officers in the country .
“Our college will provide answer and solution to that. Our college will be competitive because we are going to use 21st century technology to ensure that whatever you get here in Lokoja is what you can also get in United Kingdom, United State of America and other parts of the western world” she stated.
The proprietor also assured that when the bill sail through and become a law, the proposed health institution would be registered with Corporate Affairs Commission and approval from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to make the college academically strong as it would offers different courses starting with four.
“That is why we are seeking for a bill so that when it becomes a Law it will give us the Right to do all of these.
“We are confident that the college is going to grow to an extend that the institution will be offering both National Diploma and Higher National Diploma programme. It will be a full fledge higher institution in such a way that in the future, it can metamorphosis into Dr Umar Sandah University of Health Technology.
Also in his remark, the co-founder of the institution in Abuja Dr Farouk Mohammad Kakanda, said that the essence of establishing the branch of the college in Kogi state is to reduce the hardship indigene of Kogi State are passing through in seeking education in the area of health outside the state .
“We want our children to be educated here in the state so that we can export them out, instead of importing health workers from other states to Kogi state” he stated.