The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has spoken against the backwardness of the health sector in Nigeria.
Adamu Adamu stated tha it will take Nigeria 20 years to have the number of doctors it needs to revive the health sector.
The Minister while speaking during the matriculation ceremony of the Federal University of Health Sciences Otukpo (FUSHO), Benue State, stated that the ratio of doctors in the country is critically small compared to number of patients.
According to him: “Statistics have shown that doctor-patient ratio in Nigeria falls far short of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, which stipulates ratio of one doctor to every 600 patients. This contrasts with the current 1:6000 ratio in Nigeria.”
“It will take Nigeria about 120 years to have the number of doctors it needs, assuming all our doctors remain in the country.”
He added: “This is due to a combination of inadequate personnel and facilities. This was further exacerbated the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic which exposed the weak institutional capacity for disease control and surveillance in the country.”
