The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has revealed that about 2,000 newly qualified doctors are unable to secure placement for the compulsory one-year housemanship programme annually, despite graduating from accredited medical schools across the country.
The Registrar of the council, Dr Fatimah Kyari, attributed the shortfall to the limited capacity of the Centralised Housemanship System, which can accommodate only about 4,000 house officers each year, far below the estimated 6,000 doctors produced annually.
Housemanship is a mandatory postgraduate internship that provides newly qualified doctors with supervised clinical training in accredited hospitals before full registration and licensure. During the programme, house officers rotate through core clinical departments such as medicine, surgery, paediatrics and obstetrics to gain practical experience in patient care, diagnosis and treatment under senior supervision.
Dr Kyari disclosed this on Friday while appearing before the Senate Committee on Health, chaired by Senator Banigo Ipaliboto, to defend the MDCN’s 2026 budget proposal.
She urged the Senate to support the expansion of the Centralised Housemanship System to include state-owned and private hospitals, noting that such a move would significantly increase available training slots.
“A total of about 6,000 medical doctors are produced annually from various medical schools, while the Centralised Housemanship System currently has the capacity for only 4,000,” she said. “To accommodate the entire 6,000 medical graduates each year, there is a need to include state-owned and privately owned hospitals in the system.”
According to the registrar, expanding the programme would ensure that medical graduates begin their housemanship without delay and could help curb the growing brain drain in the health sector, popularly referred to as “japa.”
Dr Kyari also drew the committee’s attention to funding challenges facing the council, particularly the poor release of budgetary allocations. She disclosed that although N1.2 billion was appropriated for capital expenditure in 2025, no funds were released. For overhead costs, only N35.7 million was released out of the N100 million budgeted, while N13.8 billion was released for personnel costs out of the N16.8 billion approved.
In his response, Senator Ipaliboto assured the registrar that the situation would improve in 2026, pledging that the committee would make appropriate recommendations to the Senate to address the issues raised by the council.
