Over 20,000 Nigerian health workers relocate abroad

 

No fewer than 20,966 Nigerian health workers relocated abroad within one year, official figures obtained from the State of Health of the Nation Report 2025 have revealed. The mass exodus includes 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory professionals, 702 pharmacists, 658 physiotherapists, and hundreds of other specialists. The growing migration came under the spotlight following the revelation that a Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Dr Salamat Aliu-Ibrahim, had relocated to the United States. She now works as Medical Director, Paediatrics, Freeman Children’s Clinic, a facility under Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri.

Data obtained from the United Kingdom General Medical Council showed that 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors joined the UK medical register between May 2023 and April 2026. According to the council register, 15,896 Nigerian-trained doctors, comprising 9,664 males and 6,232 females, are currently licensed to practise in the UK.

An analysis of the State of Health of the Nation Report showed that only 60,551 of the 95,456 registered doctors in Nigeria currently hold active practising licences, representing just 63 per cent, with only 51 per cent of licensed doctors actively employed within the health system of the country. The nursing and midwifery workforce has also suffered substantial losses, recording the highest level of migration among all health professions. Although Nigeria has 267,951 registered nurses and midwives, comprising 73,130 nurses, 21,031 midwives, and 173,790 nurses with post-basic qualifications, only 113,123 currently possess active practising licences, representing an effective licensing ratio of 42 per cent, with 78 per cent of those licensed remaining employed in the country.

The report showed that 658 physiotherapists have migrated, leaving only 852 of the 8,642 registered physiotherapists with active practising licences in the country. Similarly, 21 occupational therapists have migrated, while just 11 of the 176 registered professionals currently possess active licences. There are 257 registered occupational therapist assistants, but only 51 currently hold practising licences. The report also showed that 431 optometrists have migrated abroad out of 6,975 registered optometrists, leaving only 2,156 with active practising licences, while 66 per cent remain employed locally. Among opticians, only 307 of the 2,976 registered professionals currently hold practising licences, while 18 have migrated.

The United Kingdom remains the leading destination for Nigerian health workers, particularly doctors and nurses, driven by easier professional registration, better remuneration, structured specialist training, and persistent workforce shortages within the National Health Service. A breakdown of data obtained from the UK GMC register indicated that 7,875 Nigerian-trained doctors were licensed to practise in 2020, while 9,976 were licensed in 2022. In 2023, the number of Nigerian-trained doctors licensed to practise in the UK rose to 12,198, making Nigeria the third-largest source of foreign-trained doctors in the UK, behind India with 38,228 doctors and Pakistan with 27,739. Figures from the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council show that the number of Nigerian nurses and midwives in the UK has risen above 16,000. Beyond the UK, the US and Canada have become increasingly attractive destinations, with 3,895 Nigerian-trained doctors licensed to practise medicine in the US as of 2020. Australia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates also continue to recruit Nigerian healthcare workers.

Speaking on the development, a UK-based Nigerian doctor, Sadiya Gumi, who is the Chairperson of the Concerned Medics Foundation, noted that unless Nigeria addressed the challenges in its health sector, the exodus of doctors would continue. Commenting on the relocation of Aliu-Ibrahim, Gumi stated, “She (Aliu-Ibrahim) might have gone there (the US) because of her children’s education. Her reason might not even be anything medical. She might simply believe life will be better for her and her family there and decide to sacrifice her career just to live in a safer environment,”. A Nigerian doctor based in Canada, Pelumi Adetona, revealed that poor welfare, unpaid salaries, and limited career growth pushed her and her husband out of Nigeria. Asked if she would consider returning should the health sector improve, Adetona replied, “As of today, my answer would be no. Maybe later I might consider it, but with every effort that has gone into settling down here, I don’t think I would go back.” On his part, a Nigerian-trained doctor based in the United Kingdom, Ebun Kolawole, stated, “I’m willing to return home if I can practise in an environment where I have the tools to do my job, where doctors are valued and paid what they deserve, and where my family can live in safety. It has to be more than promises. There has to be visible, lasting improvement in the healthcare system and the country as a whole,”.

The National Secretary of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Dr Shuaibu Ibrahim, revealed that the number of resident doctors in Nigeria had fallen from about 20,000 a decade ago to 12,000 across federal, state, and private hospitals, with about 8,000 leaving in recent years. Citing a study by the Federal Ministry of Health, Ibrahim said Nigeria currently has only 2.2 doctors for every 10,000 people. Ibrahim stated, “The situation is very pathetic. Poor remuneration, insecurity and lack of equipment to work with are some of the factors driving out our doctors. Our members are dying because they are on call every day of the month. The excessive workload is killing our members,”. He noted that the highest-paid doctor in Nigeria earns about N1,500,000 monthly, while a counterpart in countries such as Saudi Arabia could earn between N10,000,000 and N15,000,000. He added that junior doctors earn about N300,000 monthly despite bearing the heaviest workload.

Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu on Friday appealed to Nigerian diaspora medical professionals to attract more Nigerians back from abroad when he received members of Nigerian Diaspora Medical Associations, led by the Director-General of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, at the State House in Abuja. Tinubu stated, “I’ve been through that journey. I’m home, and I can tell you, there’s nowhere like home. I’ve experienced being in America. I’ve taken the best of America in my chosen profession, accountancy and finance.” He added, “I can’t forget the Standard Oil Building in Chicago and my first week there. But since I came back from Mobil to now, it has been a very good challenge to commit and endure the possibility of turning Nigeria around.”

Tinubu further urged the medical professionals, stating, “My friends who are still there, try to attract them home. But the best way to demonstrate to you is for me to commit myself to my agenda, the Renewed Hope, so that the hope of Nigerians of having a better environment, better education, better development and prosperity can be realised,”. He added, “Your children will see the foundation of this country as belonging to them, and the future belonging to them is what we are working hard for. Your coming to help is immeasurable,” and noted, “If you look at 250 years of American democracy and the centuries of British governance, we are still very young. We are in our infancy. What must we do? Strong determination and stay focused.”

The relocation of Dr Aliu-Ibrahim has triggered mixed reactions online. An X user identified as @Women’sDoc wrote, “We’ve lost one of the few people capable of providing a service that millions of Nigerians may someday desperately need,”. Another doctor, Daniel Popoola, wrote, “For a senior consultant to go back and start residency all over again is like someone with a master’s degree returning to Primary Five. Nigeria’s healthcare system is in serious trouble, yet no one seems to care,”. Conversely, user @oghenemaro_1 wrote, “This is very selfish of her. She enjoyed the subsidised education here, then left,”.