Nigeria’s medical training system is bleeding talent, with about 2,000 newly qualified doctors left hanging every year because there are simply not enough housemanship slots to go round.
The alarming revelation came from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), which said the country’s centralised housemanship system can only absorb 4,000 doctors annually, despite medical schools producing about 6,000 graduates each year.
Briefing the Senate Committee on Health in Abuja during the 2026 budget defence session, MDCN registrar Fatimah Kyari laid bare the scale of the crisis.
“A total of about 6,000 medical doctors are produced annually from the various medical schools, while the centralised housemanship system in operation has a capacity for 4,000 medical doctors,” she said.
Kyari warned that the gap is fuelling frustration, delays in career progression and an exodus of young doctors from the country.
She urged the Federal Government to urgently expand the system by bringing state-owned and private hospitals on board.
“As a way of accommodating the 6,000 at once yearly, there is a need to include state and privately-owned hospitals in the centralised housemanship system,” Kyari said.
Beyond the placement crisis, the MDCN boss also exposed serious funding shortfalls choking the council’s operations.
According to her, the council received nothing from its N1.2 billion capital vote in 2025. Only N37.5 million was released from the N100 million approved for overheads, while N13.859 billion came from the N16.8 billion earmarked for personnel costs.
She added that doctors in federal hospitals are already overstretched, working far beyond reasonable limits due to manpower shortages.
Kyari called for urgent investment in medical training infrastructure and manpower, stressing that abandoned reforms would only deepen the crisis.
Still, she noted that the steady migration of Nigerian doctors also reflects the quality and global competitiveness of locally trained professionals.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Ipalibo Banigo, assured the MDCN of legislative support, pledging to push for better funding and reforms to rescue Nigeria’s fragile health sector.
