By Sam Adzegeh
The Benue community is agog with excitement over the first set of successful IVF operation in the State. The operations, which birthed a set of two male twins and a girl, were performed on two women at the Mohammadu Buhari Mother and Child Care Hospital, an affiliate of Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, recently
The Chief Medical Director of BSUTH, Dr. Stephen Hwande disclosed this while briefing news men at the Staff training for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) & intrauterine insemination (IUD) held at the centre yesterday.
Expressing delight at the development, Dr. Hwande pointed out that the teaching hospital is one of only two of its kind carrying out IVF operations in the north, and one of six nationwide.
The CMD said the feat was made possible by the commitment of the State Governor, Rev. Hyacinth Alia to the State’s health sector as seen in the allocation of more than N82 billion to the sector in the 2025 budget.
Hwande disclosed that the Governor’s intervention has enabled payment of more than four hundred million naira debts owed by the teaching hospital before the coming of the Alia administration, adding that the hospital’s VIP section is currently undergoing renovation and is projected to meet world standards, and that a N1.6b water project is also on going at the facility with mobilization already paid to the contractors.
Hwande explained that in line with the Governor’s policy which places the masses first, most costs of operation at the IVF Centre were subsidized by the administration, thus enabling an IVF operation to cost as low as between N400,000 to N500,000 only, as against more than one million naira in other facilities in the country. Similarly, he said, cost of delivery at the facility is only five thousand naira which he described as the lowest of its standard. Hwande added that, as the answer to people’s health care problems by government, the Mohammadu Buhari Mother and Child Care hospital is dedicated to helping the masses.
“For pensioners, patient cards are to be given to individuals free. Those with the cards are to receive free consultation at the hospital, and if they are eventually admitted, they are to be given free bed space,” Dr. Hwande explained.
