Buhari approves N21bn for 14-bed presidential clinic – PS

Umar Tijjani, the Permanent Secretary of the State House, announced on Thursday that President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) has approved the construction and equipping of a 14-bed Presidential Clinic at a cost of N21 billion.

When he appeared before the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs to present his budget proposal for 2022, Tijani stated this.

He explained that the VIP clinic was built by Messrs Julius Berger Nigeria, a construction company.

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He said the physical construction would start on November 1, 2021, and the building would be completed on December 31, 2022.

The Presidential Clinic, according to the Permanent Secretary, would have 14 beds and a total size of 2,700 square meters.

The building will have a basement, a first floor, two operating theatres, two executive suites, two VIP wards, two isolation wards, and a six-bed isolation section, according to him.

He went on to say that the clinic would have a laboratory, healing garden, pharmacy, and X-ray facility.

“The project was conceived by the previous government in 2012, and the brief was processed,” he said.

“It was estimated to cost about N21bn and the facility contains 14-bed space with a total area of 2, 700 square meters, there will be underground and first floor. “Most of the preliminary works had been concluded. Mr President has approved the project. We have gone to the Bureau of Public Procurement to get a Certificate of No Objection.”

JBN was recommended as the contractor because it built the State House and had been maintaining it since 1990, he told the committee.

“JBN did an excellent job, and it was taken into consideration for security reasons.”

He added that the clinic would provide medical treatment to people from other African countries.

Senator Nicolas Tofowomo, one of the committee’s members, expressed dissatisfaction with the Permanent Secretary’s failure to show the committee a visual view of the hospital.