Medical schools to get N110bn intervention as Nigeria tackles ‘brain drain’

The Nigerian federal government has launched a N110 billion intervention fund to upgrade infrastructure in some medical schools across Nigeria. This is to address the growing trend of healthcare professionals leaving the country.

This was made known during the inauguration of the ministerial monitoring committee on TETFUND high impact intervention projects in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, who announced the launch of the fund, said N70 billion will be used to rehabilitate medical schools to international standards, while N15 billion will be allocated for new student hostels.

He noted that 76 institutions will receive advanced medical simulation centres, while universities will be mandated to increase their medical admission quotas, as part of efforts to train more healthcare workers for local and global opportunities.

According to Alausa, the idea behind the policy is to train more medical personnel for both local and international job opportunities which will be sustained over five years by the federal government.

He explained that this was due to growing concerns about the neglect of medical colleges across the country , a situation linked to the increasing number of Nigerians seeking opportunities abroad.

He stated that President Bola Tinubu has directed key universities across the country to increase their admission quotas for medical students as part of efforts to curb brain drain in the healthcare sector.

Speaking of the benefits of this refund, he noted that if this kind of support continues for the next five years, it will make more doctors and health workers available to help people in Nigeria, and some will also be well-trained enough to work in other countries.