The Purpose of the Centre

My initial goal in setting up the Centre was to establish a forum for educating the general public about diabetes. My OOU/OOUTH collaborators, however, suggested and I agreed with them that to make the proposed institution a Centre of Excellence, it should not only offer diabetes CARE but should also conduct intensive diabetes-related clinical researches that will help in the management of the disease. One of such areas is research into our local foods and herbs. We believe this approach, when combined with Western diabetes treatment regimes, will facilitate the development of a homegrown intervention strategy that will not only be readily available to our patients but will also make the management of the disease relatively more affordable and user-friendly to them. This is how the Talabi Diabetes Centre (TDC) was conceived and birthed.

Sited on 0.582 hectares of land in Isara, my hometown, in the Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria, the purpose-built Clinical Complex of the Centre was formally declared open to the public on March 11th, 2010, at a ceremony presided over by His Excellency, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, the Executive Governor of the State at that time. The entire Centre was built, equipped and is still being maintained by my family. Since we know that most of the patients coming from our locality are low-income persons, the Centre adopted right from inception a policy of charging them minimally. To this end, I established a Drug Revolving Fund which enables patients to procure their prescriptions at near cost prices. It also makes it possible for patients to pay a once-for-all registration fee of Two Hundred Naira (N200) at the first visit; have routine laboratory blood glucose test at One Hundred Naira (N100) and urine test at Fifty Naira (N50). This has been of tremendous financial assistance to the patients and the community at large.


Olumuyiwa Talabi