The revelation by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, to the effect that over 16,000 Nigerian doctors have left the country in the last five to seven years to seek greener pastures in other countries is a sad development.
The massive exodus of doctors from the country does not only portend the erosion of the gains in the health sector but also call for a holistic review of the nation’s health system with a view to make it attractive for both Nigerians and foreign professionals.
The minister made the disclosure at the seventh annual capacity building workshop of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa in Abuja on Tuesday with the theme, “Integrated healthcare regulation and leadership in building resilient health systems.”
He said the doctor-to-population ratio is now 3.9 per 10,000 in the country, while the estimated cost of training one doctor exceeds $21,000. He lamented that nurses and midwives who left have also thinned the number of healthcare workers in the country.
According to him, an increasing number of Nigeria’s talented healthcare professionals aspire to work in other countries, driven by factors such as economic opportunity, better working conditions, more advanced training, and superior research environments abroad. He said the migration of health professionals from developing countries is not new, but it has accelerated in recent years.
“In Nigeria alone, over 16,000 doctors are estimated to have left the country in the last five to seven years, with thousands more leaving in just the past few years. Nurses and midwives have also thinned in numbers. The doctor-to-population ratio now stands at around 3.9 per 10,000—well below the suggested global minimum. But this trend is not just about people leaving. It represents a fiscal loss.
The estimated cost of training one doctor exceeds $21,000, a figure that reflects the magnitude of public financing walking out of our countries. It deeply affects our health systems, leaving many of our rural communities critically underserved.”
He, however, emphasised that the phenomenon offers an opportunity to rethink and reshape the policies, to manage the valuable health workforce in ways that benefit our countries first and foremost.
Besides the worrisome trend of the migration abroad is the brain drain among Nigeria’s nurses and midwives. In fact, the United Kingdom’s Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) reported last week that at least 14,815 nurses and midwives trained in Nigeria have migrated to the UK in the past five years in search of better opportunities.
According to the council, between April and September 2024 alone, 1,159 Nigerian-trained health professionals were added to the UK’s NMC register, representing an 8.5 per cent increase in just six months.
While the register only reflects those qualified to practise in the UK and does not necessarily confirm employment, the steady rise in figures since 2017 has been described as a clear indication of the ongoing migration trend among Nigeria’s healthcare workers.
The NMC further revealed that as of September 30, 2024, more than 200,000 foreign-trained health professionals were registered to work in the UK, with Nigeria ranking third behind India and the Philippines in terms of numbers.
Despite a 16.1 per cent decline in new Nigerian additions compared to the previous year, the country remains one of the UK’s leading sources of health workers.
The continued outflow has raised concerns among Nigerian health authorities. At the Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) conference held in Abuja, the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Iziaq Salako, warned that the persistent brain drain is putting significant strain on the country’s healthcare system.
Salako said that although Nigeria trains some of the world’s best doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals, many leave in pursuit of better opportunities abroad. He acknowledged the global impact of Nigerian professionals but stressed that the country must now address the toll their departure takes on local health services and the broader economy.
He also called for collaboration among African nations to establish stronger, legally binding agreements with countries like the UK, which benefit from African-trained personnel. According to him, such agreements should ensure that hiring countries contribute to the training and infrastructure development of the nations they recruit from. In addition, Salako emphasised the need to retain local healthcare workers by improving incentives and working conditions.
It is instructive that the National Policy on Health Workforce Migration aims, among others, to: retain and motivate health workers currently serving in Nigeria, thousands of whom work under difficult conditions; establish ethical norms and explore bilateral frameworks for recruitment, aiming to correct global asymmetries; expand training capacity; and to strengthen governance, improve regulatory coordination, and build real-time data systems.
Blueprint is particularly miffed that despite this robust policy framework and having invested enormous resources in the training of its health workers, Nigeria could so easily lose them to other countries due to some mundane and surmountable factors like poor remuneration, inadequate facilities, and unfavourable working conditions, among other obnoxious policies.
We urge the government to reverse the brain drain syndrome by frontally addressing the factors responsible for the migration. Government needs to boost the output of the nation’s medical schools while creating working conditions that inspire Nigeria’s health workers to stay and serve their country. The gains of the renewed hope administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the health sector reform, including Nigeria becoming a hub for medical tourism, must not be allowed to fritter away.