Abuja City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) Initiative: OCI Foundation Joins Partners and Stakeholders (April 2023)

The OCI Foundation has joined partners in Nigeria in a workshop designed to ensure that Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal capital territory, gets included into the City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) Initiative.

The C/Can is designed to attract resources from industry and development partners on cancer control strategies in the cities listed therein. The OCI Foundation, through its Gynocular Cancer Project in Abuja, offers a digital cancer screening service that is largely free for Nigerians, making it a key contributor to the C/Can project. In addition, the Foundation is currently planning a permanent, state-of-the-art, cancer centre in Abuja, and, through a recent MOU with the Swedish-based Gynius AB, intends to expand the Gynocular service to include more diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

Alongside the OCI Foundation, other stakeholders for Abuja’s C/Can quest include the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the Medicaid Cancer Foundation (MCF), among others. Nigeria’s Honourable Minister for the FCT, as well as that for Health, are all involved in this noble project, and were both formally represented a the stakeholders meeting held on April 4, 2023, in Abuja, Nigeria. A C/Can team from Geneva was also in attendance.

A pre-event workshop was earlier held on Thursday, March 30, 2023, also in Abuja.

The OCI Foundation was represented at both events by Dr Ndaeyo Iwot (the Foundation’s FCT and FG Liaison Officer) and Dr Fatima Anga (the Foundation’s Director of Gynocular Project).