The federal government has launched an initiative to harness the expertise of Nigerian health professionals living abroad to strengthen healthcare delivery at home, rallying diaspora doctors, nurses and pharmacists to support services at the country’s tertiary health institutions.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Ali Pate, represented by Permanent Secretary Daju Kachallom, said the programme, known as the Nigerians in Diaspora Advance Health Programme, will begin with 19 federal tertiary health institutions nationwide and roll out in three phases: foundation and setup, pilot implementation, and scale up and evaluation. Kachallom said Nigerian health professionals abroad have long contributed to the health sector, but those efforts had never been properly coordinated, a gap the new programme is designed to close. Today’s launch is one practical expression of that approach, he said, for many years, discussions about Nigeria’s health workforce have been framed largely around one phrase, brain drain, the loss is real and we do not diminish it but it is not the whole story, there is a simple idea at the heart of this programme which is migration, migration left alone is a loss but migration given direction becomes circulation. What has been missing is a national mechanism that connects that commitment to institutional priorities that supports sustained collaboration and enables its impact to be measured, strengthened and sustained over time, he said, disclosing that in partnership with the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, the government will launch the Diaspora Health Impact Initiative on July 25 as part of National Diaspora Day 2026, aiming to support specialised services, strengthen residency training, expand continuing professional development opportunities and build lasting partnerships between local institutions and global Nigerian expertise.
A ministry director, Nwakaego Chukwukaodinaka, explained that the programme connects diaspora doctors, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals with Nigerian health institutions through short term clinical placements, sabbatical engagements and virtual mentorship, enabling direct patient care, capacity building and skills transfer in priority specialty areas. She said the scheme runs through a digital portal that registers, verifies and matches diaspora volunteers with facility needs, supported by a real time dashboard for coordination and oversight by the Project Management Unit. A representative of NIDCOM said the commission is ready to manage the migration of health workers with a view to turning brain drain into brain gain for Nigeria, while Chairman of the Guild of Chief Medical Directors of Federal Tertiary Hospitals Sahad Ahmed pledged the readiness of hospital management teams to help ensure the programme succeeds.
