Imo varsity opens robotic surgery academy, targets 500 trainees in two years

Imo State University has teamed up with the Imo Robotic Centre to open a robotic surgery academy, which its promoters describe as the first of its kind on a university campus in Africa. The plan is to train 500 surgeons and other surgical staff within two years, more than 250 of them Nigerian.

Professor Kingsley Ekwueme, a consultant urologist recently appointed Professor of Robotic Surgery at the university, announced the project. He said the university will handle the academic side and certification, while the robotic centre provides hands-on experience, with international faculty expected to help with teaching.

For ordinary Nigerians, the promise is simpler: surgery that once meant flying abroad could be done closer to home. Ekwueme said patients in the South-East no longer need to travel far for such procedures. "Nobody needs to travel beyond leaving your house and driving a few minutes down the road to have your surgery," he said.

What the centre has done so far

The Imo Robotic Centre, built with the Imo State Government under Governor Hope Uzodimma, carried out its first operation in August 2026, according to Ekwueme. He said several robotic procedures have followed, and that his team also performed what he called the first gynaecological robotic surgery in West Africa, with the patient going home the same day.

Robotic surgery is often linked to prostate operations, but Ekwueme said it also covers kidney surgery, fibroid removal, hysterectomy, ovarian procedures, bowel cancer surgery and some gallbladder operations. He said the machines give surgeons magnified 3D views and fine instruments, which can mean less blood loss, less trauma and shorter hospital stays for the right patients.

He stressed that buying equipment without trained hands can put patients at risk, which is why the academy trains whole surgical teams, not just surgeons. The academy also plans to help hospitals buy and install their own robots.

Ekwueme, who is clinical lead for urology at Glan Clwyd Hospital in North Wales, United Kingdom, said his team has done more than 145 robotic procedures, which he described as the highest by a comparable programme in Africa.

What happens next

Ekwueme said the university and its partners met on August 18, 2026, signed a memorandum of understanding and set aside a departmental building for the academy. Plans are also in the works for a cancer treatment centre beside the robotic facility and a medical institute.

He asked the Federal Government and public hospitals to support wider use of robotic surgery, and urged a review of taxes on imported medical equipment to bring costs down. "We will help them to acquire robots, without a doubt," he said. His longer-term hope is that in ten years every Nigerian can get robotic surgery somewhere in the country, and that fewer doctors leave abroad.