The Government of Imo state has handed over the management of State owned general hospitals to some churches and security agencies to operate under the State government’s public private partnership (PPP) initiative.

Independent reports that the hand-over event took place on Monday with the signing of the Memoranda of Understanding with the beneficiaries at the Imo Government House, Owerri.

The government stated that each general hospitals built across the local government areas in the state cost the state the sum of N1 billion and the state is said to have 27 Local government areas, denoting the state spent N27 billion for the 27 hospitals.

Governor Rochas Okorocha, who spoke at the hand-over said the initiative was part of the efforts to expand the scope of government, adding that the private sector seemed more equipped to run the establishments.

He urged the beneficiaries to respect the agreement and pay N100,000 every month to the state government, and hand over the facilities back to the state went due as the properties were not sold out to them

However, three hospitals were rented to the Anglican Church for a period of five years with 18-month moratorium and the Claretian and Lord’s Chosen Universities secured 99-year tenancies with 18-month moratorium each.

Security agencies which benefited are the Nigerian army (Owerri West General Hospital), Nigerian Navy (Ngor Okpala Hospital), Nigerian Airforce (Owerri North General Hospital) and Police (Ideato South General Hospital).