₦airaland Forum

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate said over 16,000 Nigerian doctors have left the country in the last five to seven years to seek greener pastures in other countries.

Prof Pate also 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.

This was as he lamented that nurses and midwives who left have also thinned the number of healthcare workers in the country.

The minister disclosed this 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.”

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.

“In Nigeria, guided by the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was appointed by African Heads of State as the AU’s Continental Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery—we are pursuing a new direction. His vision is that Nigeria becomes a prosperous, people-oriented country, contributing to a peaceful and thriving continent. Not a standalone Nigeria, but a Nigeria that is interlinked with all our neighbours and sister countries. Under the Renewed Hope Agenda, and within the framework of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, we have embraced a new path—combining strategic realism with visionary ambition.

“The National Policy on Health Workforce Migration is a cornerstone of this path. It is designed to address health workforce migration with dignity—dignity for health workers, for the country, and for the profession. It is data-driven, evidence-guided, and signals a clear direction. This is not a restrictive policy, nor is it one born out of resignation. We understand that the global health workforce shortage is at 18 million, and countries in the Global North face their own human resource crises due to demography and other factors. But our response is based on stewardship—balancing the rights of health professionals to seek opportunities abroad with our duty to protect the integrity and viability of our national health system.


“The objectives are clear. To retain and motivate health workers currently serving in Nigeria—thousands of whom work under difficult conditions; to establish ethical norms and explore bilateral frameworks for recruitment, aiming to correct global asymmetries; to expand training capacity—not only for domestic needs, but to contribute to global workforce needs, to enable structured reintegration for the thousands of Nigerian professionals abroad; and to strengthen governance, improve regulatory coordination, and build real-time data systems.”

He urged Africa to lead in forging a new global compact on health workforce mobility—anchored in pan-African training and accreditation standards; shared planning tools, evidence, and data; continental negotiating platforms with destination countries; and sustained investments in the people who care for our people.


The President of AMCOA, Prof Joel Okullo, stressed the importance of collaboration among African countries to tackle healthcare challenges and improve regulation and leadership across the continent.

He expressed the belief that the outcome of the workshop would produce actionable strategies to improve healthcare services across Africa.

“This year’s theme highlights our commitment to tackling the diverse array of challenges within the health regulatory landscape. It seeks to empower AMCOA members and associate members with the wisdom and skills needed for informed strategic and operational decisions in the coming year.

“In this intricate regulatory tapestry, our discussions will illuminate strategies and insights that will bolster regulators’ capabilities. Our focus will revolve around managing health workforce mobility, improving credentialing and information data management systems

“Let us embark on this journey with enthusiasm and a shared sense of purpose. Our collaborative efforts today and over the next few days will lay the groundwork for transformative changes that will resonate across the healthcare landscape of Africa,” he noted.

The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Dr Fatima Kyari, while welcoming participants to the event, noted that it was Nigeria’s first AMCOA workshop while commending the alignment of leadership towards the shared goal of patient safety.

The Board Chairperson of MDCN, Prof Afolabi Lesi highlighted the need for healthcare regulators to uphold global standards while adapting to local contexts.

Lesi, who is also the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee for the workshop addressed the challenges of fragmented professional relationships that hinder implementation and compromise patient care.

“The reality is that while we have committed and clear directions at the level of governance, implementation of actions is bedeviled by the fractioned and fractious relationship among health workers who ought to be working as a team, with the patient (well-being and safety) as the primary focus of all our actions,” he said.

Source: https://punchng.com/Japa-Nigeria-loses-$366m-as-16,000-doctors-move-abroad

Tinubu is revamping the economy, according to Agbadorian generation.

Tinubu is in France for medical check-up while Agbadorian supporters are drinking Agbo-jedi.

At least 5,000 new doctors may have to be produced yearly to manage the tide.

It is crazy, because i doubt Nigeria has more than 50 medical schools. Each medical school need to churn out average of 100 graduates yearly.

RuggedBiafran:
Tinubu is revamping the economy, according to Agbadorian generation.

Tinubu is in France for medical check-up while Agbadorian supporters are drinking Agbo-jedi.

Don't kill person with laughter o......

Some of these people just talk without reasoning. I agree that you hate this government, but why publicizing stupid information to incite the people against the Government or make them feel worse about their country?

Why didn't you bother to research on how much Nigeria has made from diaspora remittance?

There are countries in South America where DR amounts to %37 of their GDP. Chinese doctors are everywhere in the world, same with American Doctors, so stop this nonsense please.

$21,000 to train a doctor? How?

RuggedBiafran:
Tinubu is revamping the economy, according to Agbadorian generation.

Tinubu is in France for medical check-up while Agbadorian supporters are drinking Agbo-jedi.

What’s bad about drinking Agbo-Jedi?

A natural herb 🌿 made by God?

Mad pple .....
They can now use dollars to estimate how much a doctor is trained to over inflate figures

Tell them to pay standard minimum wage now based on the dollars they are quoting....they will start telling you 200naira can buy a good meal in lekki.....

The fuel is an essential commodity that affects lives in all round. The subsidy removal has proven to make Nigeria 100 times poorer.

The government should subsidies fuel to bring down the cost of living while it looks for ways to deal with smuggling of fuel and fraud in the system

The only way out is to keep churning out more doctors until the international market becomes over-saturated and extremely competitive for newbies. You can ask India what they did to tech sector. Too many people are now applying to jobs that don't exist.

You people should stop hoarding medical knowledge at the detriment of people's health. People want to be doctor, you failed to admit them, failed to build new training grounds, yet complain every four market days about shortage of doctors.

I have a feeling some external powers have bought Nigeria - the land and it's resources and they want the indigenous people to leave BUT they know they can not tell the people to leave just like that without continental and global backlash - so they are working with the puppet politicians and the security agencies to ALLOW BANDITS and FULANI HERDSMEN unleash mayhem on the citizens - so they have no other option than to flee for safety elsewhere - 50 YEARS LATER - Another race and people will populate what was once known as Nigeria - now fragmented into different colonies by the new colonialist and overlords!

There is an end game to all this madness going on and those powers who hold the cards - are using thousands of human lives as pawns!

Una try with the analysis. Thank God you are referring to doctors. But jokes aside, it's bad as most of our doctors are all leaving in good numbers. It only means one thing; anyone capable should pack their bags and join them because the good ones left here will have quacks outnumber them by 90 - 10 before their Visa comes out. Aje!!!

Congratulations to those doctors. May Tinubu not kill your dreams.

We are not prepared for the disaster that lies ahead.
Watch as miscreants and shameless imps defend a failed government and then ultimately blame Peter Obi for it

The country is far gone, nothing can be done about it.

That means the 16,000 Doctors relocated during this APC era. Una do o, Biggest party in Africa.

Watch them Tell you:
Most of these people are not Nigerians, they are IPOB. And they will come back in 2months time during Winter season.

Soup, thats what we are in. We are in soup.

While won't they run out when you pay them 450k per month?

Good. Useless country.

😅
60% of remaining ones are working on their relocation.
20% don't have age advantage
10% are contemplating whether to Japa or not
5% are only observing where the country is going
5% are not ready to go anywhere

adenigga:
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate said over 16,000 Nigerian doctors have left the country in the last five to seven years to seek greener pastures in other countries.

Prof Pate also 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.

This was as he lamented that nurses and midwives who left have also thinned the number of healthcare workers in the country.

Source: https://punchng.com/Japa-Nigeria-loses-$366m-as-16,000-doctors-move-abroad

Northerners are clueless about governance.
Ngige knows that we have gained more than we lost due to japa.

Nollyzonenews:
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, says doctors who feel they want to relocate in search of greener pastures are free to do so as the nation has enough medical personnel.

Ngige said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday. 
The minister was responding to a question on brain drain and the deliberate recruitment of Nigerian doctors by foreign embassies in Nigeria to the detriment of the nation’s health sector.

In his response, however, Ngige, who is also a medical doctor, said there was nothing wrong with doctors leaving the country as they would continue to send foreign exchange home which could, in turn, grow the economy.

He said, “No, I am not worried (about doctors leaving the country). We have surplus. If you have surplus, you export. It happened some years ago here. I was taught chemistry and biology by Indian teachers in my secondary school days.

Source: http://www.ngg.ng/2019/04/24/doctors-are-free-to-leave-nigeria-we-have-enough-dr-chris-ngige-says/

PheelzAlmighty:
We are not prepared for the disaster that lies ahead.
Watch as miscreants and shameless imps defend a failed government and then ultimately blame Peter Obi for it

The country is far gone, nothing can be done about it.

You know them. Those useless APC miscreants.

chinchum:
At least 5,000 new doctors may have to be produced yearly to manage the tide.

It is crazy, because i doubt Nigeria has more than 50 medical schools. Each medical school need to churn out average of 100 graduates yearly.

According to MDCN CEO, Dr. Fatima Kyari, Nigeria currently has capacity to produce 7,000+ doctors annually, up from 5,000+ as at last year. Same last year, 4,000 doctors left.

So, increase capacity to produce more and then motivate those that have not left so they won't leave.

For now, the part of "motivation" is just talk and no action.

So, people will still leave .

chinchum:
At least 5,000 new doctors may have to be produced yearly to manage the tide.

It is crazy, because i doubt Nigeria has more than 50 medical schools. Each medical school need to churn out average of 100 graduates yearly.

And to achieve this, they must make the medical schools readily affordable for an average home. We are in for a long ride!

More will still japa.

GeneralPula:
What’s bad about drinking Agbo-Jedi?

A natural herb 🌿 made by God?

Which god made it? And how do you know he made it?

How can a country lose 16000 doctors f.f.s!!!!
Apc policies are pathetic

Tinubu is in france seeking medical treatment. It is possible that it is one of the Nigerian doctors that japa is the one attending to Tinubu.

jaephoenix:
Which god made it? And how do you know he made it?

Agbo are herbs from trees, leafs & roots..

Who created these things🌲?

Humn! Imagine how many medical doctors are now attending to the over 100million citizens of this nation @ present.