President Goodluck Jonathan Thursday inaugurated a $20 million Nizamaye Hospital in Abuja, seen as a remarkable milestone in the bilateral relations between Nigeria and Turkey.
The 80-bed world-class facility put at about N3.23 billion, is located in an industrial layout in the city and is the first time Turkey, under the Nigeria-Turkish expatriate business group, ventures into healthcare service delivery in the country.

This came as the president also inaugurated an ultra modern administrative and laboratory complex of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), Idu, Abuja.
Speaking at the inauguration,  Jonathan said: “Research and development are critical to our national technological and scientific advancement and our quest to become one of the 20 largest world economies.”
The president explained that, “in today’s global world, a nation’s competitiveness is determined by its achievement in science and technology, triggered by research.”

At the opening of the Turkish hospital,  Turkey’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Mustafa Pulat said: “This hospital is another token of our interest and determination to come to Nigeria – in the best way we can.”
Pulat had told journalists that “It is our own investment in the human capital of Nigeria,” meant to provide care for the health needs of Nigerians who troop in their thousands abroad for overseas medical services.
“The outcome will be long term. We have to be patient. The outcomes will be strong and very beneficial for Nigeria and Turkey.”

The two countries had maintained bilateral relations in business terms since the Nigerian-Turkish group began its gradual creep in 1998 into the Nigerian education system.
From records, including primary and international colleges, Nigerian-Turkish group now runs 16 schools, including Nile University it started four years ago.

Nizamiye cost an estimated $20 million (N3.233 billion) to set up, said its medical director, Dr. Mustafa Ahsen, and its manpower stands at around 148, Nigerian and Turkish combined.

Nizamiye Hospital, occupying four floors on prime property, started work last year, several months before its official opening. It offers services in internal medicine, radiology, ear-nose-and-throat, paediatrics, orthopaedics and gynaecology.
Though the hospital doesn’t have a psychiatry unit, but Ahsen said it planned to open units in angiography and emergency cardiology and gradually expand to a teaching hospital to serve the group’s Nile University.