Oyo Health Commissioner Dr Ajetunmobi Oluwaserimi
The Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, has called for urgent action to address Nigeria’s shortage of trained biomedical engineers, warning that the lack of skilled personnel is hampering the maintenance of medical equipment in hospitals.
Speaking on Thursday at the 4th National Oxygen Coordination Meeting in Abuja, organised by the Nigerian government with development partners, Ajetunmobi said most hospital equipment fails due to insufficient maintenance.
“In some of our hospitals, we don’t even have trained biomedical engineers. Even though we have people occupying the space, they still need to be trained regularly. They are the ones taking care of the machines working at the back end. We need capacity building for biomedical engineers to know what to do, when to do it and how to do it,” she said.
Nigeria currently has fewer than 280 biomedical engineers nationwide, averaging 0.05 per 10,000 people, a figure far below global standards.
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Ajetunmobi highlighted the challenge of maintaining customised oxygen plants, citing Oyo State’s solarised oxygen plant as an example, where the irregular supply of spare parts often disrupts service.
Speaking at the event, Eno Edem, Secretary of the National Oxygen Desk, Federal Ministry of Health, urged state governments to apply lessons learned to ensure sustainable medical oxygen supply and called for training healthcare workers as key actors in the effort.
Biomedical engineers are critical in designing, implementing, and maintaining medical equipment and supporting research and development to improve healthcare delivery. To address the shortage, the government has established university departments, training programmes, and international partnerships to strengthen skills and promote innovation.
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