About 2,000 newly qualified medical doctors in Nigeria are unable to secure housemanship placements each year due to limited capacity in the country’s centralised system, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has told the Senate.
The Registrar of the council, Dr Fatimah Kyari, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja while defending the MDCN’s 2026 budget before the Senate Committee on Health.
Kyari explained that although Nigeria produces about 6,000 medical doctors annually from accredited medical schools, the existing Centralised Housemanship System has the capacity to absorb only 4,000 graduates, leaving a yearly shortfall of about 2,000.
According to her, the persistent gap has continued to deny many young doctors the mandatory housemanship training required for full medical practice in the country.
She said the inclusion of state-owned and privately owned hospitals in the Centralised Housemanship System was necessary to accommodate all graduating doctors at once, rather than leaving thousands without placements each year.
Kyari noted that expanding the scheme would not only guarantee housemanship positions for all medical graduates but also help curb the growing brain drain in the health sector, as many affected doctors seek opportunities outside the country due to prolonged delays in securing placements.
