The minister declared this when he accepted members of the Nigerian Association of Urological Surgeons led by its FCT chairman, Dr. Celestine Undie, on a visit to the FCTA. Bello said that stakeholders in the Abuja project are being urged to join hands with the administration towards making the FCT a center of medical excellence. While commending the decision of the association to hold its Annual Medical Conference in Abuja, the minister affirmed satisfaction over the cordial relationship between the FCTA and medical professionals and the role the latter has played in the development of the FCT health sector.

Bello stressed that the unique location of Abuja makes it the best choice for conferences and that the nation’s capital was gradually being recognized as a hub for conference tourism in Africa. He said efforts were also underway to make Abuja a center of medical excellence, to mitigate medical tourism abroad.

“Usually, as a city, we try to enable these gatherings. We are trying to position the city of Abuja as a conference center and gradually, we are also trying to encourage it to be a center of medical excellence so that we can stem the tide of medical tourism. “Already under construction, which I can share with you are very important centers of medical excellence. For instance, the Afreximbank, which is a multilateral financial institution headquartered in Cairo Egypt, for which Nigeria is a major shareholder, is already constructing a 500-bed multifaceted facility to be managed by one of the international medical groups,” the minister said.