MUNI UNIVERSITY RECEIVES SHS20 BILLION TO KICKSTART TEACHING AND RESEARCH HOSPITAL

Muni University officials during media briefing at the University Boardroom

By Dramadri Federick

Muni University in Arua City has received 20 billion shillings from the government to kick-start the construction of a multibillion-shilling teaching and research hospital expected to transform medical training and specialized healthcare services in the West Nile Sub-region.

The 250-bed Muni University Teaching and Research Hospital is estimated to cost 160 billion shillings and will be constructed in phases.

Muni University Vice Chancellor, Associate Professor Simon Katrini Anguma, says Uganda is facing a shortage of specialized doctors, and the hospital will provide an important platform for training more specialists while improving healthcare delivery.

“The doctor Patient ratio is supposed to be 1:1000 but the current doctor patient ratio in Uganda is 1:25,000, that means doctors are not enough and Uganda’s case is worse when it comes to specialized fields of work”, Anguma stated

The university says the government initially committed 30 billion shillings as start-up funding, of which 20 billion shillings has already been provided. Additional funding is expected through annual government budget allocations until the full project cost is met.

The Deputy Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, Reverend Father Professor Doctor Epiphany Odubuker Picho, says the facility is being designed to provide advanced medical services while supporting teaching and research.

“We have already received 20billion shillings to start the project, in addition to that we have a letter from the Ministry of Finance confirming that funds will be available for the project until the end”. Picho assured

The planned facilities include a 100-body-capacity mortuary with a cold room, pathology and investigations laboratory, an eight-bed dialysis unit, organ transplant theatres, an Intensive Care Unit, a fertility center and a sperm bank.

Professor Jacob Godfrey Asea, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs, says the university has already recruited four specialists to support programmes that will be undertaken at the teaching and research hospital. “We shall continue engaging hospitals on top of the four, drawing their expertise until a full recruitment is done”.

Established in 2014, Muni University has grown from 87 students enrolled in two academic programmes to 3,843 students pursuing 34 programmes. The University with this hospitals also hopes to rollout Bachelor programs including Bachelor of Pharmacy, Medicine and Surgery.

University officials say the hospital will further position Muni University as a leading Centre for health sciences training, research and specialized healthcare in West Nile and beyond.

President Yoweri Museveni is expected to preside over the groundbreaking ceremony on August 21, 2026, marking the beginning of the project that university officials say will strengthen medical education, research and access to specialized healthcare.

Also in attendance on invitation are Minister of Education and Sports, Minister of Health, Minister of Finance besides political and technical officers across the local governments within the West Nile sub region.

Written by newsroom-radiopacis