Prof. Ali Pate, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, announced that the enrolment quota for medical, nursing, and other health schools has increased from 28,000 to 64,000 in the last year. Pate said this on Friday in Abuja during a Ministerial Sectoral Briefing ahead of President Bola Tinubu’s first anniversary on May 29.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), health workers in Nigeria continue to relocate abroad due to a lack of equipment, insecurity, bad working conditions, and low pay. Between 2019 and 2023, about 1,000 medical consultants departed the nation. According to other statistics, more than 900 resident doctors relocated to Europe during the first nine months of 2023. To alleviate the crisis, Pate stated that the Government is tackling it by expanding enrollment quotas to create more healthcare workers.

He emphasized the need for schools and State Government to improve infrastructure, skills, and resources to facilitate this growth. According to the Minister, 1,400 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) now have skilled birth attendants, and over 2,400 health workers have been recruited to work in rural regions.

Pate stated that the Government has distributed N25 billion from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to 23 States via the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the National Health Insurance Authority. He stated that the remaining States were in the process of completing the standards to obtain their share. Dr Tunji Alausa, Minister of State for Health, previously pointed out that the Federal Government is implementing plans and initiatives to raise the number of medical and dental doctors from 5,000 to 10,000. According to NAN, this will begin in the upcoming academic year with an increase in admissions to Medical and Dental Universities

Alausa stated that making the healthcare environment more appealing will deter the large flight of licensed doctors and other health professionals to more developed countries. We will also expand these chances to other health professionals such as pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, community health extension workers, radiographers, and others. It will proceed in stages. “We shall create room to produce more and excess because globally, there is a shortage of health manpower; the shortage is estimated at 18 million personnel,” He also claims that Nigeria generates only 3,000 doctors per year.

Read Also: Former Abia State First Lady Resigns from PDP