2,000 MEDICAL GRADUATE MISS HOUSEMANSHIP PLACEMENT YEARLY – MDCN

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has revealed that about 2,000 medical doctors produced annually in the country are unable to secure housemanship placements due to capacity limitations within the existing centralized system.

The Registrar of the Council, Dr. Fatimah Kyari, made this known on Friday during the MDCN’s 2026 budget defence before the Senate Committee on Health in Abuja.

According to Kyari, Nigerian medical schools graduate roughly 6,000 medical doctors every year, but the Centralized Housemanship System currently has capacity for only 4,000 doctors, leaving about 2,000 graduates without placement annually.

To address the shortfall, she urged the Federal Government to include state-owned and privately run hospitals in the Centralized Housemanship System, stressing that this would allow for the absorption of all 6,000 medical graduates each year.“

A total of about 6,000 medical doctors are produced annually from various medical schools, while the centralized housemanship system in operation can only accommodate 4,000,” she said.

“As a way of accommodating the 6,000 medical doctors at once every year, there is a need to include state and privately owned hospitals in the centralized housemanship system.”

Kyari noted that full absorption of medical graduates into housemanship programmes was crucial to curbing brain drain in the health sector, which she described as a growing challenge.

She also decried funding constraints faced by the Council, disclosing that no funds were released from the N1.2 billion capital allocation appropriated to MDCN in the 2025 fiscal year.

According to her, only N37.5 million was released out of the N100 million appropriated for overhead costs, while N13.859 billion was released from the N16.8 billion earmarked for personnel costs during the same period.

In his response, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Banigo Ipalibo (PDP, Rivers West), assured the MDCN Registrar that the committee would ensure adequate funding for the Council.