The Federal Government has said it recruited more than 20,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and laboratory scientists into federal health institutions across Nigeria over the past two years.
This is according to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate.
Prof. Pate disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja, while outlining recent achievements in the health sector. He said the large-scale recruitment, approved by President Bola Tinubu, is part of a broader strategy to rebuild the country’s healthcare system and enhance access to quality medical services nationwide.
He explained that the newly employed personnel have been deployed across teaching hospitals, federal medical centres, and other tertiary health facilities to address manpower shortages and improve patient care delivery.
The minister said, “We’re expanding the footprints because they are also important. We’ve recruited more than 20,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and lab scientists in the last two years, thanks to the president’s approval for federal hospitals.
“This is not the primary health care. This is, if you recall, 20 and before the President gave the waiver to the Foreign Ministry of Health.
“And this data is that your media folks, you can ask the director of human resources in the ministry to give you the breakdown of which hospital, which cadre, and where we are on that, so then we have the human resources.
“The third element, of course, is the value chain, so that we begin to produce what we need. It’s a long journey, but also to safeguard the quality of what we produce, and then ensuring health security, so that we protect our populations every day we have it doesn’t get to the media.”
The minister added that the government is simultaneously investing in medical infrastructure, revitalising cancer treatment centres, upgrading teaching hospitals, and strengthening primary healthcare, PHC, systems nationwide.
According to him, these efforts are already producing measurable outcomes, with some states recording up to a 12 per cent decline in maternal mortality rates due to improved healthcare delivery at the community level.
“Growing the national revenue base means we can invest more in health, education, and other social services.
“These are not easy decisions, but they are necessary to build a system that works for everyone,” he added.
Prof. Pate assured Nigerians that the Federal Government remains committed to sustaining health sector reforms, enhancing disease surveillance, and expanding health insurance coverage to protect vulnerable citizens.
He also urged greater transparency and public accountability in the management of health resources, noting that progress in the sector depends on collective responsibility and oversight.
In his remarks, the Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, emphasized the importance of collaboration between federal and state governments in improving primary healthcare delivery.
He underscored the role of PHC in ensuring equitable access to quality medical services, especially for rural and low-income populations.
He said, “PHC is where the battle for equitable access to quality health services is most intensely fought, especially for the most vulnerable populations in our society.
“Our administration is driven by the unwelcome conviction that the health of our citizens is not just a service to be delivered both a fundamental human right and the bedroom of a prosperous, inclusive society, a society can only be truly productive and resilience when every individual have access to quality health care close to home free from the fear of financial devastation.”
Amid growing concerns about overstretched health workers, the recruitment of over 20,000 professionals is expected to strengthen service delivery at all levels, primary, secondary, and tertiary, while reducing the workload on existing personnel and curbing the brain drain of medical practitioners to foreign countries.
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