Over the last year, 3,173 Nigerian nurses relocated to the UK. Discover the factors driving this migration and its implications for both countries.
The period under consideration is between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024.
As of March 31, 2024, the report discloses that there are currently 13,656 Nigerian-educated nurses and midwives practicing in the UK.
The NMC oversees nursing and midwifery professions in the country and disclosed its registry comprises a significant number of professionals with international training – approximately 826,418 individuals.
Nigeria is one of the top non-UK countries for nursing education, as evidenced by a 28.3% rise in Nigerian practitioners within the UK over the last year.
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The leading nations are India with 62,413 professionals, followed by the Philippines with 49,092 individuals and Romania and Ghana coming after with respective figures of 7,378 and 5,536.
The trend is a component of a broader worldwide concern emphasized in 2023 by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report revealed that Nigeria, among 54 other countries, encounters severe shortages in its healthcare workforce. With the continuous repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak and various healthcare hiatuses, numerous health workers have sought better prospects overseas.
In March 2023, the UK government added Nigeria and 53 other countries to its “red list” of nations from which health and social care employers were discouraged from actively recruiting.
Nevertheless, despite this measure, the NMC disclosed almost an equal number of nursing and midwifery registrations for both locally-educated as well as internationally-trained professionals – totaling nearly 60,000 new entries for this year.
The arrival of healthcare workers from Nigeria mirrors a wider pattern of emigration among the nation’s nurses and midwives.
According to the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, more than 75,000 members have departed in the last five years alone; this has made an already dire shortage worse and put significant strain on Nigeria’s ability to deliver medical care.
