Abuja, Nigeria — November 3, 2025 | Dalena Reporters
Nigeria is confronting a critical health-care workforce crisis, with government figures revealing that each doctor currently attends to approximately 3,500 patients — a far cry from global standards and a major obstacle to improving public health outcomes.
At a press briefing on Friday, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, said:
“The World Health Organization recommends a doctor-to-patient ratio of roughly 1 to 1,000. In Nigeria, the ratio is closer to 1 to 3,500.
He cited a combination of factors driving the shortage: high levels of doctor migration abroad, ageing practitioners, inadequate training capacity, and internal deployment imbalances that leave large segments of the population underserved.
Dr Salako said the federal government is taking immediate steps to address the gap, including ramping up training of medical personnel, deploying temporary doctors to rural areas, and reforming incentive structures to retain doctors within the country. He emphasised that the shortage is part of a global health-worker crisis but said Nigeria’s challenge is particularly acute given its population and disease burden.