World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged Nigerian investors to explore provision of healthcare for the elderly by establishing homes and clinics for the aged.
WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr Rui Vaz said this while speaking journalists on the sideline of a two-day consultative meeting on Capacity Building for Masters Programme in Geriatrics Medicine in Selected Nigerian Universities.
Vaz who was represented by Dr Andrew Mbewe, the Regional Adviser for Child and Adolescent Health and Development at WHO Regional Office for Africa said “There can be private establishments which cater for older people; if you go to Europe at the moment, its big business.
“People who have their pensions, who have got a bit of money, most of them live in homes because they cannot be catered for at home.
“Also clinics – a clinic that specialises in elderly people would serve its purpose by making its services available for the elderly group.
“It is not very apparent now but in future, we are seeing that we are growing older, we are staying longer and also the problems of the elderly will become more prominent when we deal with these preventable diseases.
“Now we will have diseases – not like malaria or diarrhoea – but things like diabetes or heart failure or things like that that come in as we grow old.”
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pioneer universities that benefited from the training programme include University of Jos, Bayero University, Kano, and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Port Harcourt; University of Lagos; University of Uyo; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Calabar; and the University of Ibadan.