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Niger state government has wooed 60 medical students with employment in its bid to bridge the brain drain gap in the state’s health sector.
This is coming barely two months after the State Government employed 1,000 health workers in the state civil service to address the shortage of health personnel in hospitals and primary healthcare centres across the state.
The state government signed employment bond agreements with 60 medical students who are at the clinical stage in various health tertiary instructions across the country with the view of absolving them into the state civil service after their schooling.
The Medical students include 43 Males and 17 Females from various universities across the country and abroad.
Speaking at the official signing of the engagement bond between the Niger state government and medical students in Minna, the state governor, Mohammed Umar Bago said the need to engage the student doctors had become necessary following the shortage of manpower in the area of medical Doctors in the state.
The state governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago represented by his deputy, Comrade Yakubu Garba explained that the medical students had exhibited their willingness to embrace the offer adding that arrangements are being made with universities in India to train medical, engineering, and ICT students.
“The conversion of the former Shiroro Hotel in Minna to a Teaching Hospital affiliated with the state-owned Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU) Lapai has reached an advanced stage, and this will also provide opportunities for postgraduate training”.
Bago advised the medical students to exhibit good character and be dedicated to their studies.
The state Head of Service, Alhaji Salisu Abubakar explained the need for engaging the indigenous medical students in the State’s Civil Service adding that several of them seek greener pastures abroad after their horsemanship, hence the need to engage them while they are still in school.
He said that the government would continue to work towards addressing the brain drain in the state’s Health sector and other professional cadres.