Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health, Muhammad Pate, says the country’s health sector is making unprecedented progress, with reforms boosting public confidence and addressing health workers’ concerns.
Speaking on Sunday, he reflected on decades of challenges faced by health professionals and highlighted the progress achieved over the last two and a half years. Pate noted that health workers often served under difficult conditions, with successive governments failing to provide an enabling environment for the sector’s top talents.
“Under the compassionate leadership of President Bola Tinubu, we acknowledge that past administrations did not always provide the enabling environment for our best talents to thrive”, he said.
Pate added that poor implementation of past commitments had led to dissatisfaction among health workers, including members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), prompting the administration to focus on industrial harmony through engagement with stakeholders and addressing both legacy and current challenges.
“In spite of recent disruptions by a small segment of health workers, the overwhelming majority have continued to report for duty, serving our people with dedication, care, and innovation, Pate said.
Among the reforms, the retirement age for clinically skilled health workers has been raised from 60 to 65 years, arrears from 2023 have been paid, and a new hazard allowance is being processed. Over N10 billion owed under the 2025 Medical Residency Training Fund has also been settled. Salary adjustments under CONHESS and CONMESS are being institutionalised, and other union demands are being addressed through Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations.
Data show growing public confidence despite “minor industrial distractions”, with over 90 per cent of union demands met. Nigeria recorded 10 million hospital visits in Q2 2024, rising to nearly 40 million by Q2 2025, a nearly fourfold increase. Foreign exchange spent on medical tourism has fallen by 52 per cent, while health facilities are seeing more foreign patients, signalling a gradual reversal of medical tourism.
Citizen surveys between 2023 and 2025 showed overall system confidence at 55 per cent, confidence in government management of health emergencies at 67 per cent, and patient satisfaction at 74 per cent.
Pate said the progress demonstrates Nigeria’s capacity to turn crises into opportunities, transform liabilities into assets, and place citizens at the centre of national renewal.
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