Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos State Governor, stated on Thursday that the state faces a shortage of about 40,000 doctors and another 40,000 nurses. He spoke at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention held at the Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The governor identified the shortage of health workers and funding as the two biggest challenges in the state’s healthcare system. He also warned that donor funding for disease control was shrinking.
Sanwo-Olu explained the scale of the problem clearly. “Lagos needs about 40,000 doctors to serve this population properly. We have about 7,000. We need roughly 40,000 more nurses. Every doctor in Lagos today is, in effect, doing the work of 10,” he said.
He further noted a major funding shortfall. “The second gap is money. There is a shortfall of at least N100bn between what our health budget provides and what this system genuinely requires. Donor financing, which supported much of our disease control for two decades, is contracting sharply and will not return in its old form,” he added.
Meanwhile, the governor said the state had started tackling the workforce shortage. The government recruited aggressively and opened clinical recruitment across all 29 secondary facilities last month. It also built accommodation for health workers and improved conditions to reduce departures and attract professionals back.
In addition, Sanwo-Olu reported progress on health insurance. More than 1.5 million residents had enrolled in the Ilera Eko scheme. As of the end of May, the figure stood at 1,502,994, with more than half being women. Utilisation of the scheme continued to rise.
He also mentioned the Assistance in Distress programme under the Lagos State Health Management Agency. The programme had saved 18 lives since it began operations in March. These cases involved road traffic injuries, surgical emergencies, obstetric crises and strokes.
The governor said the government was deploying technology through the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform. The system would allow seamless access to patient records across facilities and support better planning.
