The Federal Government has imposed a restriction on leave of absence for healthcare workers seeking to move overseas.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, who disclosed this on Saturday, March 9, said the ban on the leave of absence for health workers followed the executive order issued by President Bola Tinubu as part of steps to combat the challenge of brain drain in the nation’s health sector, as a result of ‘japa syndrome’
Speaking in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Dr. Alausa also revealed that the federal government has commenced aggressive production of manpower in the health sector, such that the annual enrollment of nurses which used to be 28,000 is now 68,000 and that by the end of this year, it would have gone up to 120,000.
He said that President Bola Tinubu considered the biggest asset of the country to be the people and has not only vowed but has taken proactive actions to ensure the health sector is in good shape so that the health of the people too won’t suffer.
“The government is not unmindful of the ‘Japa’ effect on our manpower in the health sector and the President has ordered for massive production of manpower such that when people go, there will always be a replacement.
It is against this background that we are working intensely on the enrollment of our nurses, what used to be 28,000 is now 68,000 and we intend to take it to 120,000 by the end of the year, so there will always be abundant skilled manpower to take over from those leaving the job…(continue reading from next slide.)
