Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is a middle-income, mixed-economy, and emerging market, with expanding financial, service, communications, technology, and entertainment sectors. Over the past two decades, the demand for skilled healthcare professionals in the country has persistently outstripped supply.
According to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Nigeria needs 237,000 doctors to meet World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, but the country has only 35,000. This shortage resonates across other professions in healthcare, from nursing to radiography, of which there are only 2,000 registered radiographers available to service a population of more than 160 million.
There are many factors contributing to the talent shortage in Nigeria’s health sector. Prominent among these is the prevalent emigration of health workers and professionals from the country. Each year, a considerable number of healthcare professionals travel to other countries in search of better training, and more satisfying and well-paid positions. These healthcare professionals are leaving the country faster than their positions are being filled by the country’s tertiary institutions. Since Nigeria cannot yet compete in the international market for talent, the ensuing shortage may continue. The distribution of available health personnel poses an even greater challenge. Over-representation of healthcare professionals in urban areas leaves those in rural areas underserved.
One way of effectively tackling skill shortages is to attract Nigerian health workers back to the country. Many of these professionals, who leave with the intent of obtaining the best training, desire to return to Nigeria. Countries such as South Africa and Malaysia have been able to reverse emigration trends by investing in world-class medical facilities and providing better pay. The Indian government is also taking steps to retain healthcare workers by providing free land and tax relief for up to five years, among other perks, to returning physicians and other highly sought-after medical professionals. Offering more attractive remuneration, a better security guarantee, better incentive packages and improved workplace conditions will provide Nigeria with a platform to compete on equal footing with developed countries.
Another channel for tackling talent shortages in the country is by supporting continuing education for health workers, especially in the area of post-graduate training. Apart from giving a much-needed boost to the system, a well-structured training program that encompasses both on-campus and online approaches may improve health workers’ competency. Online professional training and market-driven academic education provide a platform for the achievement of healthcare ideals, arming professionals with internationally acceptable knowledge of the scientific foundations of medicine, population health and public health that will help prepare them for the challenges of tomorrow.
Online learning can also help produce healthcare professionals who, in addition to possessing practical skills for handling common health problems and medical emergencies, have a strong inclination toward broad community health and preventive medicine, as well as the ability to lead health teams and manage small health services in the country. As students can access learning materials anytime, this approach ensures that learning is transformed from an exercise in knowledge acquisition to one of measurable performance improvement.
In addition, online education offers the opportunity to learn best practices and developments from other qualified and highly trained healthcare professionals and faculty around the world. It also features a flexible format that allows busy professionals to create their own schedules.
The identified factors responsible for the skills shortage in Nigeria’s health system need to be addressed in a comprehensive, forward-thinking approach to strengthen and safeguard the future of the system. In particular, this may be done by increasing the number of online education opportunities without compromising rigour, quality or standards.
Mountasser Kadrie, Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), Program Director of the course-based and competency-based Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) at Walden University
