The university is owned by the Niger State government.

The Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU) Lapai, Niger State, has concluded plans to establish a College of Health Sciences this year.

The Commissioner for Health, Ibrahim Sule, stated this on Friday in Minna while addressing journalists.

He said that the measure was part of efforts to train medical doctors and other health personnel for the state to meet the shortfall in its health personnel needs.

Mr. Sule said that the state executive council had approved the establishment of the college.

He said that it was part of efforts to provide access to people of the state wishing to study medicine and other health- related courses at the university.

The commissioner said training of medical doctors at the university would enable the state to meet its demand for such health professionals.

“We do not have enough health professionals, including medical doctors to man our health facilities,” he said.

He said the college would take off by September during the commencement of the university’s next academic session.

Sule said it was also part of the university’s future master plan with the new intakes starting pre-clinical studies.

He said the state had a large number of qualified candidates who annually sought admission to read medicine in various universities.

He, however, lamented that most of the candidates could not be admitted by those universities.

Rather, he said, they were often advised to take other courses.

He said the IBB Specialist Hospital would serve as the training facilities for those students.

The commissioner said that the government had commenced equipping the hospital to meet the requirements of training medical doctors and other health professionals.

He said the state government had agreed to offer automatic employment to the 28 graduates of the School of Midwifery who succeeded at the end of their programme last academic year.

The action of the government, the commissioner said, was to further encourage other students and their lecturers for returning 100 per cent pass in the final examinations for the first time.

The IBB University is owned by the Niger State government and named after Nigeria’s former military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida, who is from the state.

(NAN)