The Federal Government has approved the recruitment of 1,200 staff for the Federal University of Technology, Akure Teaching Hospital (FUTATH), as part of efforts to ensure a smooth takeoff of operations at the newly-established federal institution in Ondo State.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Professor Olusegun Ojo, disclosed the development while briefing journalists on the hospital’s activities, noting that workers will begin receiving their salaries under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System from August 2026. According to him, more than 800 of the approved workers had already been captured during a first biometric enrolment exercise held in June, while a mop-up exercise for those who missed the initial round due to network and fingerprint-related issues took place in Abuja on July 9.

Ojo said he had initially hoped salary payments would begin in July, but the delay in completing the data-capturing process pushed the timeline back.

The CMD also flagged ongoing challenges facing the institution, including inadequate office accommodation, medical equipment, and clinical space, though he expressed confidence that the hospital’s take-off grant and other federal interventions would help improve infrastructure and service delivery going forward.

He noted that the Ondo State Government has continued to bear the burden of paying staff salaries under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding until the federal teaching hospital fully assumes that responsibility.

Addressing recent protests by some workers at the institution, Ojo attributed the unrest to misinformation, saying some individuals had misled workers and job seekers into believing that every staff member from the hospital’s former iteration would automatically be absorbed as a federal employee.

The FUTA Teaching Hospital emerged from the transfer of the former UNIMED Teaching Hospital complex in Akure to the Federal Government, part of a broader push by the Tinubu administration to expand specialist healthcare access and deepen medical training and research across the country.

Photo Credit: The hope newspaper