Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State says his administration built the 300-bed Enugu International Hospital to reduce the number of Nigerians travelling abroad for medical treatment.
Mr Mbah, who spoke to reporters on Wednesday after a pre-launch tour of the facility, said the hospital was established to retain the substantial resources spent on healthcare abroad.
“This is not a facility that is knee-jerk or that was accidentally put here. If you recall, during our campaign for this office, we made it clear that we were committed to making Enugu a medical tourism hub on the continent.
“We knew the size of that market. We also knew that we wanted to have a good chunk of that market. So, what you’re seeing here today is a plan that had even been conceived before we started our campaign,” he said.
The governor stressed that the facility was part of his administration’s deliberate plan to position Enugu as a medical tourism destination.
