The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, has said some Nigerian health workers practising abroad have indicated interest in returning home if the government provides needed infrastructure and incentives.
In an interview with Channels Television on Sunday, Pate said the government was aware of the challenges facing the health sector due to the poor state of health facilities, and the low remuneration.
“Some that have been successful (abroad) are also beginning to think of how to come back if the enabling infrastructure is provided,” Pate said.
Lamenting the brain drain in the country, the minister said; “in the last five years, the country lost about 15,000 to 16,000 doctors to Japa syndrome, while about 17,000 had been transferred.
“There are about 300,000 health professionals working in Nigeria today in all cadres. I am talking about doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, laboratory scientists, and others. We did an assessment and discovered we have 85,000 to 90,000 registered Nigerian doctors. “Not all of them are in the country. Some are in the diaspora, especially in the US and UK. But there are 55,000 licensed doctors in the country.
However, he commended the thousands of other health workers who have chosen to remain in Nigeria and serve the country despite the opportunity to migrate to other countries where they could earn more and enjoy better working conditions.
“There are also thousands who are here that despite the opportunity to travel abroad, they are not travelling abroad and we do appreciate them,” he said.
He noted that other countries, especially in Africa, are also facing the same problem of brain drain in the health sector.
“The lifeblood of the health sector is the human resource. That is the most important ingredient, not the hospitals, though they are very important complements,” he said.