First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo with the delegation at her office
The Thumbay Group of Dubai, a diversified international business conglomerate, has paid a courtesy call on First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo at her office in Accra.
The visit was led by the founder / President of Thumbay Group, Mr Thumbay Moideen, with members including Dr Vinod Abraham, Director –External and Internal Affairs of the Thumbay Group, Board Chairman of National Health Insurance, Professor Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Madam Cecilia Dapaah, Minister for Aviation.
The visit followed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Thumbay Group and the Ministries of Health and Education for the establishment of a US$ 600 million medical university and teaching hospital in the Greater Accra Region.
Dr Vinod Abraham indicated that the ultra-modern health project would help to pioneer innovative solutions to health delivery in Ghana and beyond particularly in the West African sub-region.
He said when completed, the medical university will be the “first of its kind in the West African sub-region” and will be a unique medical research and innovation centre in West Africa offering programmes including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and physiotherapy.
He also noted that “the university will not only cater for Ghanaian students but also international students and offer state-of-the-art virtual patient learning, advanced simulation centre, among others, which will transform medical education in the country and in the region as a whole.”
In addition to the university, Dr Abraham said the proposed teaching hospital will have 300 beds and will be a tertiary care centre for Ghanaians as well as those from the sub-region.
This, he noted, “Will help position Ghana as a medical tourism destination.”
He assured the first lady that the hospital will also provide cost-effective and affordable care to the poor and needy, as well as provide direct employment to 2,500 Ghanaians when both projects are completed.
Mrs Akufo-Addo expressed her gratitude to the Thumbay Group for choosing Ghana for such an enormous project and pledged her support to see the project completed.