States Warn of Worsening Doctor Shortages as Nigeria’s Retention Challenge Persists
Nigeria’s struggle to retain doctors is again under scrutiny as state branches of the Nigerian Medical Association warn that persistent migration, poor remuneration, insecurity and weak career prospects are leaving hospitals with fewer medical professionals and heavier workloads.
The pressure is especially visible in Ondo State, where the NMA says public health institutions now have about 500 doctors after losing roughly 400 to migration and other forms of workforce attrition over the past five years. The association says the state previously had about 900 to 1,000 doctors in its public health system.
Those figures are state-level NMA estimates, not a national audit. But similar warnings from doctors’ groups in other states point to a broader retention problem that continues to affect healthcare delivery.
Physicians’ Week Brings Retention Pressure Back Into Focus
During activities marking the 2026 Physicians’ Week, NMA branches in Cross River, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ogun and other states called for better pay, safer hospitals, improved infrastructure and clearer career progression.
The association says inadequate staffing is increasing pressure on doctors who remain in the system and threatens both continuity of care and the long-term sustainability of medical training.
In Ondo, NMA chairman Roland Arohunmolase said the reduction in the state’s public-sector doctor workforce had increased workloads and raised concerns about service quality.
The wider message from the association is consistent: retaining trained doctors requires more than producing new graduates. Governments must also create conditions that make remaining in the system professionally and financially viable.
Government Says It Is Expanding the Health Workforce
The Federal Government acknowledges that migration remains a problem.
The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare says more than 37,000 health workers have been employed since 2023, with more than three-quarters in clinical roles.
It has also pointed to expanded training quotas, a National Health Workforce Registry, retraining programmes for more than 70,000 frontline health workers and the deployment of community health workers as part of its response to workforce shortages.
Nigeria’s National Policy on Health Workforce Migration, approved in August 2024, also sets out measures including retention incentives, ethical recruitment, diaspora engagement, bilateral agreements and rural deployment.
The government has described the policy as part of an effort to manage health-worker migration rather than simply treat migration as an individual decision by professionals.
Recruitment Is Not the Same as Retention
The key accountability question is whether those measures are keeping enough doctors inside the health system.
Government recruitment figures show additional health workers entering the workforce, but they do not by themselves establish how many remain after migration, retirement and other forms of attrition.
The same distinction applies to expanded medical-school and training quotas.
Training more doctors can increase future supply, but the effect is weakened if newly qualified professionals leave shortly after completing their education or if existing doctors continue to exit faster than they can be replaced.
That makes retention outcomes — not only recruitment announcements — the more important measure.
Why Doctors Say They Are Leaving
NMA branches have repeatedly cited several factors driving migration and dissatisfaction: poor remuneration, difficult working conditions, insecurity, inadequate hospital equipment and limited opportunities for professional advancement.
The association has also warned that staffing shortages can create a cycle in which fewer doctors carry heavier workloads, increasing burnout and making departure more attractive.
In some states, doctors are also calling for additional internship and postgraduate training opportunities so younger practitioners can build careers without having to relocate.
These are association positions and should not be treated as a single audited explanation for every doctor who leaves Nigeria, but they identify recurring pressures across the profession.
The Citizen Consequence Is Felt Inside Hospitals
The workforce issue matters because the impact extends beyond doctors themselves.
Fewer doctors can increase pressure on clinical teams, reduce continuity of care and place greater strain on teaching hospitals responsible for training the next generation of professionals.
The NMA argues that the problem also affects public confidence in the health system, particularly where facilities lack equipment or specialist capacity.
The consequences are likely to vary significantly by state, hospital and speciality, making national headline figures alone an incomplete measure of the problem.
A National Count Still Needs Better Evidence
One widely circulated claim suggests that only 58,000 of about 130,000 registered Nigerian doctors have renewed their practising licences.
IDNN is not using that figure.
The current publicly available material from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria reviewed for this story does not independently establish that comparison.
Without a direct MDCN dataset or statement confirming the numbers and explaining what licence renewal represents, the figure risks being misread as a count of doctors currently practising in Nigeria.
Registration, licence renewal, migration and active domestic employment are different measures and should not be collapsed into one statistic.
The Next Test Is Measurable Retention
Nigeria now has a formal migration policy, expanded training programmes and federal recruitment initiatives.
The unresolved question is whether those measures are reversing the workforce losses being reported across states.
That requires transparent data showing how many doctors are entering the system, how many are leaving, where shortages are most severe and whether retention incentives are changing those trends.
For patients, the issue is ultimately less about the phrase “brain drain” than whether hospitals have enough qualified people available to provide timely, safe and continuous care.
Until government workforce data and professional-body figures can be reconciled, the safest conclusion is that doctor migration remains a significant pressure on Nigeria’s health system — while the precise national scale still requires clearer measurement.