The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a stark warning that the African region could face a critical shortage of 5.3 million healthcare professionals by 2030 unless immediate action is taken by governments. This projection was revealed by Dr. Muyiwa Ojo, WHO’s Technical Officer for Human Resources for Health (HRH), during a two-day capacity-building workshop for health journalists held in Abuja.
Nigeria, in particular, is grappling with a severe healthcare crisis, with an estimated shortage of nearly one million healthcare workers. This ranks the country as having the third-largest deficit of health professionals globally, Dr. Ojo disclosed at the event.
He emphasized the urgent need for reforms to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare system, especially in light of the growing brain drain issue, where skilled healthcare professionals are leaving the country in search of better opportunities abroad. “The strength of every health system is directly tied to the capacity and adequacy of its workforce,” Dr. Ojo noted, highlighting that Nigeria’s health worker shortage is one of the most severe globally.
The WHO has identified Nigeria as one of 55 countries facing critical health workforce challenges, exacerbated by poor human resource planning, uneven distribution of healthcare workers, and ineffective recruitment and retention policies. These challenges, according to Dr. Ojo, are severely undermining the quality of healthcare services in the country and hampering efforts to meet public health demands.
The crisis, he added, is fueled by labor market failures, inadequate education and training for healthcare professionals, and insufficient funding for the health sector. Without urgent reforms, Nigeria risks missing its 2030 health goals.
In addition to addressing healthcare workforce issues, the workshop also focused on the media’s role in combating gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual exploitation. WHO’s Technical Officer for Gender-Based Violence, Ms. Oyinloye Inigbehe, highlighted the importance of media coverage in raising awareness, empowering survivors, and advocating for policy changes on these pressing issues.
Ms. Inigbehe noted that GBV and Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (SEAH) remain major concerns within the Global Fund Strategy, and the media plays a crucial role in driving advocacy and bringing attention to these matters.
