Incentives will stop doctors from migrating abroad, says Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has asked governments at all levels to incentivise doctors and other healthcare workers in order to prevent them from migrating abroad. 

Speaking on Tuesday at the inauguration of the Yeriman Bakura Specialist Hospital in Zamfara, Obasanjo said the migration of trained medical personnel, also known as ‘japa’, is worsening the country’s healthcare sector.

He said infrastructure upgrades must be matched with strategic policies and incentives to keep skilled health workers at home.

“For hospitals, especially when many Nigerians who have been trained as medical personnel are ‘japa-ing’, which is going out of the country, looking for better conditions, how do you hold them here? You have to give them a bit of incentive,” he said.

“We need all the personnel that we can have because our hospitals have to deliver. You need the right environment and that is the refurbishing, renovation but you need the right equipment and then you need the personnel.”

In recent years, Nigeria’s health sector has seen a growing number of medical professionals leave for better opportunities abroad.

Last year, the National Hospital in Abuja said brain drain had reduced its workforce from 3,000 to 2,500.

In 2022, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) warned that the trend was contributing to rising infant and maternal mortality.