Several weekends ago from this publication, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Brussels Belgium received three honourable ministers from Nigeria. They were Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Honourable Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Doris Nkiruka ANITE, Honorable Minister of Trade & Investment and Mariya Mahmud Abubakar, Honorable Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory.
According to embassy sources, they were in Belgium to discuss investment opportunities in the health value chain, and explore partnerships with the Belgian private sector among other things. In this visit, two of the ministers were welcomed to the beautiful rich port city of Antwerp by Pastor Dahi, the publisher of the Scopenews and Prince Ik Akenzuah, two stalwart Nigerian leaders in Belgium. During the minister’s call on Mediport, a healthcare outfit in the center of Antwerp a conference was held, in which Dahi and Akenzuah introduced Professor Sarah De Saeger of the Ghent University Belgium and Mr Domique Viaene, the CEO of Protex Health Care. These are two notable health care professionals in Belgium with very strong interest and attachments with Nigeria.
Prof. Sarah De Saeger is head of the Centre of Excellence in Mycotoxicology and Public Health and
senior full professor at Ghent University, Belgium.
She is coordinator of the international thematic network MYTOX-SOUTH® and project coordinator of
the EC funded HEurope project UP-RISE.
She has been elected as President of the International Society of Mycotoxicology (ISM) in 2021.
In 2022, she became Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.
Her research focuses on mycotoxin detection methods, metabolomics and untargeted analysis,
mycotoxins and human health, and exposomics.
Research results are published in more than 430 A1 peer reviewed papers (web of science h-index
61).
She was an expert in EFSA CONTAM working groups (2011-2018) and a member of the Scientific
Committee of the Belgian Federal Agency for Food Chain Safety (2015-2020). In 2015 she was
awarded the Ghent University Prometheus Award for research.
Moreover, next to the research activities, she is the Department Chair of Bioanalysis at the Faculty of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, as well as the Faculty Director of Studies since 2022.
What we do in Nigeria?
To have access to safe food, as part of food security, is a human right although still many people in
the world are deprived from this. Mycotoxins, such as the carcinogenic and deadly aflatoxins, are
natural contaminants, produced by fungi during production and storage of agricultural crops. Mainly
sub-Saharan African countries are prone to mycotoxin contamination due to the conducive climatic
conditions, suboptimal processing and storage practices, and lack of awareness and legislation.
In 2017, Ghent University, under the leadership of Prof. Sarah De Saeger and prof. Marthe De
Boevre, has initiated the Mytox-South® platform for capacity building Mytox-South (mytoxsouth.org).
Different academic institutes located in Nigeria are Mytox-South® partners. These are the Federal
University of Technology – African Centre of Excellence in Mycotoxins and Food Safety (ACEMFS) in
Minna, Niger State; the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Ogun State; the University of
Medical Sciences (UNIMED) in Ondo City, Ondo State as well as the Voices of Women in the
Development of Agriculture (VOWDA). Since then, many bidirectional academic exchanges took place
of Master and PhD students as well as staff for training and research projects on food safety.
Since January 2024 these collaborations between Ghent University, ACEMFS and VOWDA have been
further accelerated through the successful funding of the HEurope project UP-RISE Up-rise
Foodsafety (uprisefoodsafety.org). UP-RISE stands for the EU-AU Partnership for Resilient, Inclusive
and Safe food systems for Everyone. In the coming four years UP-RISE will contribute to improving
and strengthening the African Food Safety System by focusing on value chains of fermented foods
with high economic relevance and/or high nutritional importance in the local diet, and that are prone
to mycotoxin contamination, thus compromising food safety and contributing to long-term adverse
human health impacts in Africa.
Mr Dominique presented the profile of his company and explained their interest in Nigeria thus
Protex Healthcare is a Belgian based medical company specialized in the development, manufacturing, sales and marketing of medical devices and pharmaceuticals.
Protex Healthcare focusses on:
– Fast diagnostics and healing of complex wounds (DFU, VLU, tropical ulcers such as Burulli, Burton, SCD ulcers, burns, pressure sores and trauma wounds). – The supply and service of dialysis products (as distributor of Fresenius Medical Care for Nigeria), with own Nigeria based technical support, education and training center.
– The supply of highly accurate, speed testing for alcohol and drug-abuse, tropical diseases and for fast general health and gynecological testing, leading to a EU level manufacturing plant in Nigeria for West-Africa by 2030
– The supply of non-China or India based pharmaceuticals, with EU GMP or FDA GMP quality control, manufactured as top quality, affordable generics. – Education to doctors and nurses on how to deal better and faster with complex wounds, how to build Nigerian research and knowledge base in the major health areas such as diabetes, dialysis, burns and tropical diseases.
2. Why do we want to be Nigeria?
Protex Healthcare has been in Nigeria since 2017 and has gathered more knowledge of the urging and real needs for providing better tools to local care centers, more post education support towards excellence, in that way contributing to less medical brain drain abroad. Nigeria is for Protex Healthcare the central point into the Africa continent.
3. What are we doing already in Nigeria?
– We have set up an own Protex Healthcare West Africa subsidiary in Abuja in 2023, and are now activating this, including NAFDAC and SON registrations. – First focus is on providing essential tools for wound diagnostics, cleansing and healing, including new types of education for the people in the field. – We are investing in full service technical service, training, and sales center for Fresenius Medical Care dialysis products in Abuja, including water purification and green energy, to guarantee centers at maximum capacity. – We are preparing, in cooperation with ALGON, the set-up of SCC (State Community Care centers) that offer fast first screening and treatment platforms for people in the rural areas. We focus here on the medical side.
In view of the expected growth of the Nigerian population in the next 25 years, we want to help to upgrade and upscale the medical services to a level as close to the EU standards, to lower the need for Nigerians to have to leave the country for good treatment. The needs in the Nigerian healthcare are high, and we want to be actively part of the solution, to bring both services and medical business forward in the country, leading to more employment inside Nigeria and stopping the (organized?) brain-drain.
