The Offa Metropolitan Club has signed an operational agreement with Clina-Lancent Laboratories, on the efficient running of the medical centre in Offa General Hospital, Kwara State.

Speaking during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the laboratory centre, the President of the Offa Metropolitan Club, Mrs Serah Alade, said the OMC donated the medical centre to the Offa General Hospital to improve healthcare services in the community and the surrounding areas in Kwara state.

Alade said, “Health care service cannot be done by government alone. The resources are not there. What we are trying to say is that stakeholders in communities can be involved in health care service delivery and the government should encourage such so that we can support them in the provision of quality health care for the people.”

Alade, who is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, also stated that one of the reasons for establishing the centre was to discourage medical tourism, adding that services in the facility would include laboratory tests, radiology unit, CT scan machines, theatre, x-ray, as well as a maternity unit for mother and child, among others.

She said, “The OMC was established in 2019 by members that have a shared passion to make a difference. As OMC, we are committed to making a difference by promoting the economic, social and infrastructural development that serve not only our community but also has an impact beyond our boundary. Adequate and sustainable provision of quality and accessible healthcare is one of the fundamental foundations of making a difference.

In her address, the Managing Director of Clina-Lancent Laboratories, Dr Olayemi Dawodu, said its laboratories would partner the OMC in the provision of quality tests.

The Executive Secretary, Kwara State Hospital Management Board, Dr Abdulraheem Malik, said the state government was collaborating with the OMC to make quality health care available to the people of the state.