Health minister Muhammad Ali Pate says over 16,000 doctors have left Nigeria to pursue greener pastures. 

Mr Pate said this at the seventh annual capacity-building workshop of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa held in Abuja on Tuesday. 

He said, “In Nigeria alone, over 16,000 doctors are estimated to have left the country in the last five to seven years, with thousands more leaving in just the past few years.”

“Nurses and midwives have also thinned in numbers. The doctor-to-population ratio now stands at around 3.9 per 10,000—well below the suggested global minimum.”

The health minister noted that the rising number of exits by medical professionals from Nigeria is driven by economic factors, better working conditions, more advanced training and a superior research environment abroad. 

Mr Pate mentioned that the trend was not “just about people leaving”.

“It represents a fiscal loss,” stated the minister. “The estimated cost of training one doctor exceeds $21,000—a figure that reflects the magnitude of public financing walking out of our countries.”

The minister acknowledged this “deeply affects our health systems,” noting that the situation leaves “many of our rural communities critically underserved.”

However, he stated that the brain drain in the health sector could offer an opportunity to rethink and reshape the country’s policies to manage the valuable healthcare workforce in ways that benefit Nigeria first.