10,494 Nigerians In UK NHS As Health Worker Exodus Deepens

•Nigeria Loses More Than 20,000 Health Professionals In One Year

•FG Targets Better Pay, Conditions To Halt Migration

The number of Nigerians working in Britain’s National Health Service(NHS), has risen to 10,494, highlighting the growing loss of skilled medical professionals from Nigeria.

The figure places Nigeria among the largest foreign nationalities represented in the UK health workforce and makes it the biggest African contributor to the NHS workforce.

According to data compiled by NHS Million, Nigerians rank sixth among nationalities represented in the UK health service. They come after the UK and British workforce, India, the Philippines, Ireland and Poland.

The figures show that more than 1.1 million UK and British nationals work in the NHS, while India accounts for 32,117 workers and the Philippines 25,423.

Nigeria’s figure is also considerably higher than those of other African countries. Zimbabwe has 4,780 nationals in the NHS, followed by Ghana with 3,395, Egypt with 2,895 and South Africa with 1,829.

The development comes as Nigeria grapples with a worsening shortage of medical professionals caused partly by the continued migration of doctors, nurses and other specialists to countries offering better remuneration and working conditions.

The 2025 State of Health of the Nation Report revealed that more than 20,000 Nigerian health workers relocated abroad within one year.

The report listed 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory professionals, 702 pharmacists, 658 physiotherapists and 274 dentists among those who left the country.

The exodus has further exposed the gap between Nigeria’s available medical workforce and the growing demand for medical services across the country.

Nigeria has 95,456 registered doctors, but only 60,551 hold active practising licences, according to available medical workforce data. The distribution is also uneven, leaving some parts of the country, particularly several northern states, with very low doctor-to-population ratios.

Britain has remained one of the major destinations for Nigerian-trained doctors. Data from the UK General Medical Council showed that 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors joined the UK medical register between May 2023 and April 2026.

The number of Nigerian-trained doctors licensed to practise in the UK has now reached 15,896, further underscoring the scale of Nigeria’s medical talent migration.

The Federal Government has acknowledged the challenge and introduced measures aimed at improving health workforce retention.

The National Policy on Health Workforce Migration, approved in August 2024, seeks to address the factors pushing medical professionals out of the country.

The policy focuses on better working conditions, career progression, workforce planning and improved retention of health professionals.

Although an implementation plan has been finalised, full implementation of the policy had yet to commence.

Meanwhile, the government said it was expanding efforts to strengthen the frontline health workforce. In 2025 alone, more than 23,000 frontline health workers were trained, bringing the total number trained between 2024 and 2025 to 78,146.

The figure represents about 65 per cent of the government’s target of training 120,000 frontline health workers.

Health sector stakeholders have continued to argue that training more professionals will not be enough unless Nigeria can also retain those already in the system.

Improved salaries, safer workplaces, access to modern equipment, opportunities for professional development and clearer career paths remain central to efforts to slow the migration of skilled health workers.

The growing Nigerian presence in the NHS therefore presents a sharp contrast: while Britain continues to benefit from Nigerian-trained professionals, Nigeria is working to rebuild a health workforce weakened by years of migration and uneven distribution.