Nigeria’s healthcare hit hard as nurses, doctors emigrate
Nigeria’s Health Minister said the country has only 55,000 doctors for a population of 220 million.
Faced with skyhigh inflation, low salaries and an overstretched healthcare system, doctors and nurses are leaving Nigeria in their thousands every year for better opportunities abroad. Between 15,000 and 16,000 doctors have departed in the past five years, according to Nigeria’s Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate.
Today, Africa’s most populous country has just 55,000 doctors for a population of 220 million, he said. The exodus of healthcare workers has heaped extra strain on those who stay, and made choices tough for students thinking about their future. Doctors in Nigeria’s public and in some private hospitals make $2,000 to $4,000 each year, so an average of about $200 a month, said Moses Onwubuya, president of the Nigerian Medical Students’ Association. “They’re better than that,” he said. In 2020, the World Health Organization placed Nigeria on its red list of states facing a serious shortage of doctors and nurses.
In a bid to limit the brain drain, lawmaker Ganiyu Johnson proposed a Bill in 2023 that would require medical graduates to work for five years in Nigeria before obtaining a full licence to practise. Parliament has not yet passed the Bill, which was heavily criticised by doctors’ associations. The law for nurses changed on March 1, requiring them to practise for at least two years in Nigeria before they can leave the country. The Health Minister also said he would look into increasing health professionals’ salaries, but there is no sign that Nigeria has managed to stop the exodus.