The Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Ndagi Alhassan, has raised concerns that some states in the country employ fewer than 100 nurses annually despite a growing shortage of healthcare workers.
He described the situation as worrisome, given the rising demand for quality health services across the country.
Alhassan explained that the limited recruitment of nurses is worsening the burden on the few available professionals, who are already stretched thin by long hours, poor welfare, and increasing cases of brain drain.
He warned that this trend, if unchecked, could further cripple the healthcare system.
The NMCN boss stressed that while Nigeria produces thousands of nurses every year, the lack of adequate employment opportunities at the state level undermines both service delivery and workforce morale.
According to him, the persistent shortfall in nurse employment is contributing to burnout among existing staff and weakening the health system’s capacity to deliver quality care, especially in rural and underserved communities.
Alhassan said, “The truth of the matter is that the government needs to face its responsibility and employ unemployed nursing graduates. If you examine the employment statistics from all states and teaching hospitals over the last three years, it’s a very poor record.
“In fact, if you go to many of the healthcare institutions, particularly in some states, they barely employ up to 100 nurses in the whole state yearly. Those are the issues. We are turning these people out en masse. The problem is not production. The problem is employment.”
Nurses across the country recently embarked on a nationwide strike that lasted a few days. During the industrial action, hospitals across Nigeria witnessed a significant disruption in medical services as nurses under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives crippled medical facilities’ operations for four days.
The industrial action, which started on July 30, 2025, and was planned for seven days, was called off on August 2, 2025, after the nurses’ leadership and the Federal Government team met. Before the strike, the union had, on July 14, 2025, issued a 15-day ultimatum to the federal government, demanding immediate intervention to prevent a total healthcare shutdown.
Some of the demands of the nurses are the upward review of shift allowance, uniform allowance adjustment, a separate salary structure for nurses, increased core duty allowance, mass employment of nurses, and the establishment of a nursing department in the Federal Ministry of Health, among others.
The PUNCH