Nigeria Pushes New Africa Health Workforce Pact as FG Unveils Migration, Investment Reforms
By Onwe Wisdom, Pan Afric Reporters
Nigeria has reaffirmed its commitment to fully implement the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter, while calling for a new global framework to regulate health workforce migration and address the growing shortage of medical professionals across Africa.
The position was made known by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in a statement signed by Assistant Director, Information and Public Relations, Mr. Ado Bako, following Nigeria’s participation at the 2nd Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum held in Accra, Ghana.
Speaking at the forum, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, said Nigeria was ready to demonstrate its commitment to the charter through “policy, investment, and accountability,” stressing that Africa’s healthcare system urgently requires stronger financial support and workforce development.
Dr. Salako warned that despite improvements in Africa’s health worker density from 11 per 10,000 people in 2013 to 27 per 10,000 in 2024, the continent could still face a deficit of 6.1 million health workers by 2030 if urgent measures are not taken.
“The financing gap remains one of the most critical barriers to achieving Universal Health Coverage,” the minister said.
He disclosed that the Federal Government had already approved the National Policy on Health Workforce Migration in August 2024 to tackle the increasing exodus of healthcare professionals from Nigeria.
According to him, the policy focuses on ethical recruitment, bilateral agreements, diaspora engagement, retention incentives, and rural deployment strategies in line with the World Health Organisation’s Global Code of Practice on International Recruitment of Health Personnel.
Salako further revealed that under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, Nigeria had launched the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative targeting about $900 million in investments between 2024 and 2026 to strengthen the country’s healthcare system.
He said the initiative prioritises the rebuilding of primary healthcare infrastructure, expansion of training institutions, and deployment of community health workers nationwide.
“Nigeria has also completed the National Health Workforce Country Profile and established the National Health Workforce Registry with WHO technical support,” he stated.
The minister added that a Health Labour Market Analysis was currently underway to guide Nigeria’s investment compact under the Africa Health Workforce Investment Charter.
Highlighting ongoing reforms, Salako said the government had increased admission quotas in health training institutions to bridge workforce gaps and retrained over 70,000 frontline health workers toward a target of 120,000 under the Primary Healthcare workforce strengthening initiative.
On the challenge of workforce migration, Nigeria proposed what the minister described as a “Managed Migration Agreement” with clear performance indicators between source and destination countries.
“The current model, where low-income countries invest heavily in training health workers while high-income countries reap the benefits, is neither sustainable nor just,” Salako declared.
He called for structured bilateral and multilateral agreements that would ensure compensation for source countries, joint training programmes, circular migration pathways, and investments in health training infrastructure across Africa.
Nigeria also proposed the introduction of an annual Africa Health Workforce Scorecard to track graduate-employment ratios and strengthen accountability among African countries.
The minister noted that Africa continues to face severe health sector challenges, including a 70 per cent decline in Overseas Development Assistance between 2021 and 2025, a 27 per cent unemployment rate among skilled health professionals despite shortages, and a 41 per cent rise in public health emergencies between 2022 and 2024.
“To address the unemployment crisis among qualified health workers in Africa, a 43 per cent increase in employment investment is required,” he said.
He also urged African governments to meet the Abuja Declaration target of allocating 15 per cent of national budgets to healthcare, noting that only Rwanda, Botswana, and Cabo Verde had achieved the target so far.
