About 2,000 newly qualified medical doctors in Nigeria are unable to secure housemanship placements every year due to limited capacity in the existing 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 about 6,000 medical doctors graduate annually from accredited medical schools across the country, the current Centralised Housemanship System can only absorb 4,000, leaving a shortfall of 2,000 every year.
“A total of about 6,000 medical doctors are produced annually from the various medical schools, while the Centralised Housemanship System in operation has capacity for 4,000 medical doctors,” she said.
“As a way of accommodating the 6,000 at once yearly, there is a need to include state and privately owned hospitals in the Centralised Housemanship System,” Kyari added.
She stressed that expanding the scheme to cover state and private hospitals would not only ensure placement for all graduates but also help address the worsening brain drain in the health sector.
According to her, the inability of young doctors to secure timely housemanship positions often pushes many to seek opportunities outside the country.
Kyari also lamented poor funding of the council, revealing that no capital funds were released to MDCN from the N1.2 billion appropriated for capital projects in the 2025 fiscal year.
She said that of the N100 million approved for overhead costs, only N37.5 million was released.
However, she noted that the council received N13.859 billion out of the N16.8 billion earmarked for personnel costs in the same fiscal year.
In his response, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ipalibo Banigo (Rivers West), assured the registrar that the committee would work to ensure adequate funding for the council to enable it carry out its statutory responsibilities effectively.
