2,000 Doctors Face Housemanship Crisis – Council

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has disclosed that about 2,000 medical doctors produced annually in the country are unable to secure placement for housemanship due to limited capacity under the existing Centralised Housemanship System.

Registrar of the council, Dr Fatimah Kyari, made this known yesterday while appearing before the Senate Committee on Health during the 2026 budget defence session in Abuja.

According to Kyari, Nigerian medical schools graduate about 6,000 doctors every year, while the current Centralised Housemanship System has capacity to absorb only 4,000, leaving about 2,000 doctors without placement annually.

“A total of about 6,000 medical doctors are produced annually from various medical schools, while the Centralised Housemanship System in operation has the capacity for only 4,000 medical doctors,” she said.

To address the shortfall, the Registrar called for the inclusion of state-owned and private hospitals in the Centralised Housemanship System to accommodate all 6,000 graduates yearly.

“As a way of accommodating the 6,000 doctors at once every year, there is a need to include state and privately owned hospitals in the Centralised Housemanship System,” Kyari added.

She noted that ensuring timely placement for all medical graduates is critical to curbing brain drain, which she described as a major challenge confronting the health sector.

On funding, Kyari lamented that the council did not receive any release from the N1.2 billion capital vote appropriated to MDCN in the 2025 fiscal year.

She further disclosed that out of the N100 million appropriated for overhead costs, only N37.5 million was released, while N13.859 billion was released from the N16.8 billion earmarked for personnel costs in the same fiscal year.

In his remarks, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Banigo Ipalibo (Rivers West), assured the registrar that the committee would work towards ensuring adequate funding for the council.