The Federal Government disclosed on Sunday that, in the last five years, the country lost about 15,000 to 16,000 doctors to the japa syndrome (mass emigration) while about 17,000 had been transferred.

Professor Ali Pate, the coordinating minister of Health and Social Welfare, disclosed these when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

Pate, who said the brain drain syndrome has robbed the health sector of its best hands, affirmed that the government is doing its best to expand the training scheme and motivate others who chose to stay back and serve their fatherland.

The brain drain phenomenon, otherwise known as ‘Japa’, has seen a generation of young doctors, health workers, tech entrepreneurs and a number of professionals abandoned Nigeria for greener pasture abroad.

But the minister reiterated that though there are 300,000 health professionals in Nigeria, only 55,000 of them are doctors.

In his words, “There are about 300,000 health professionals working in Nigeria today in all cadres. I am talking about doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and others. We did an assessment and discovered we have 85,000 to 90,000 registered Nigerian doctors. Not all of them are in the country. Some are in the Diaspora, especially in the US and UK. But there are 55,000 licensed doctors in the country.

“The issue overall, in terms of health professionals, is that they are not enough. They are insufficient in terms of the skills mix. Can you believe most of the high skilled professional doctors are in Lagos, Abuja and a few urban centres? There is a huge distribution issue.

“The population of doctor overall is about 7,600 doctors in Lagos and 4,700 or thereabout in Abuja. The doctor to population ratio in Abuja is 14.7 per 10,000 population. These are numbers that you can verify. In Lagos, it is about 4.6, even though the average is 2.2 by 10,000.

“There are huge distributional issues and they are, of course, the opportunities even for some of those who have been trained to get into the market. So you have to look at it from a perspective that is holistic. Not only doctors but other cadres that are important in the delivery of health care. For doctors, we have been losing many that have been trained.”

Continuing, Pate emphasised that since the oxygen of any serious health sector is its human resource, Nigeria cannot afford to continue losing its best brains to the developed countries.

He however admitted that the Japa syndrome is a global phenomenon that equally affects other countries like India and Pakistan.

According to him, the country has lost about 16,000 doctors to brain drain in the past five years.

“Now to the Japa you talked about, it is not only limited to Nigeria. It is a global phenomenon. Other countries don’t have enough. They are asking to take more. It is not only in Nigeria. It is happening in India, Philippines and other parts of Africa. In the last five years, we have lost about 15,000 to 16,000 and about 17,000 had been transferred. We’re barely managing. That’s why expanding their training will become logical. The same thing with nurses and midwives; they are also leaving. That’s why expanding the training is important to ensure those still around are well trained.

“But there are also thousands more, which is what I was trying to hint at, who are here. And despite the opportunity to travel abroad did not leave and we don’t appreciate them. I’ll give you an example. The head of the ICU at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, a very brilliant gentleman. I met him in December and he said, ‘Four of my colleagues have left’ and I asked to know why he has not left. He said ‘Look, this is my country. I want to serve because health is a sector where there’s inherent motivation in those who select to go in there.’ People don’t just go in there because they want to have a job. They go because they’re intrinsically motivated and we have to recognise and tap into that.

“We are beginning to take steps to expand the training and work environment, taking some steps to encourage salaries and incomes commission to do certain things that will encourage them to feel at home. But even the issue of working hours that has come about recently, particularly for the junior doctors, is being addressed.”

“We are beginning to take steps to expand the training and work environment, taking some steps to encourage salaries and incomes commission to do certain things that will encourage them to feel at home. But even the issue of working hours that has come about recently, particularly for the junior doctors, is being addressed. This is because when some of their colleagues leave and they remain at home, the burden has not reduced. And so they work extremely hard. We’ve listened to that. We are looking at how we can alleviate that and with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, we are looking at how within the code of ethics and the guidelines for the physician to provide some safeguards to ensure they are treated as valuable assets so they are not burnt out,” he said.

Like everybody else, doctors face the challenges of everyday life which, in South Africa, include power and water outages, as well as the normal pressures of family life and rising living costs.

Perhaps more than other professionals, doctors also find it hard to strike a decent work–life balance: illness and emergencies don’t keep office hours.

At whatever stage of their careers that they might be at, doctors are chronically short of time. One of the potential casualties of this time shortage is their financial affairs.

Busy doctors simply lack the time to go into branches to perform complex transactions or get advice.

They also do not have the time (or often the expertise) to develop effective investment strategies. In a similar vein, if and when they decide to go into private practice, they can find it difficult to acquire the knowledge to set up and run their businesses profitably.

While banks cannot solve all these problems, they can certainly position themselves to help with most of them. The banking industry has been an active and early adopter of technology, and one of the benefits of this is the ability to develop and deliver focused service offerings for niche market segments—doctors in this case.

You might sceptically ask, ‘What that would look like, and how could a bank possibly help a busy doctor?’

Based on my own experience leading a team within Private Clients that focuses on medical professionals, the key benefit a bank can offer a doctor is a dedicated relationship banker. A relationship banker is the client’s wingman in the bank: a single point of contact for all their financial needs – somebody who knows all the bank’s specialists and can call on them when needed.

It goes without saying that such a relationship banker would be highly versed in the financial complexities of the medical profession.

A relationship banker is somebody who is available anytime, ideal for busy doctors with erratic schedules, and on any channel, so there is no need to waste time on in-person meetings. If this becomes necessary, or documents need to be delivered, the banker will deliver them personally.

It’s all about minimising the time doctors need to take out of their busy schedules to attend to financial matters, but in a way that their financial futures are protected.

As members of the Private Clients family, doctors would be in line to benefit from a range of ‘perks’ such as access to airport lounges, travel insurance and so on.

A key pain point for doctors is the final year at varsity. It’s make-or-break time, with insanely long hours and the brutal pressure of finals. And then, without a pause, it is time to start internships.

To help navigate that, we don’t offer just a relationship banker but also zero monthly fees for the last 12 months of their final year, and reduced fees for the beginning of the internship until they reach 30.

With that kind of help, the soon-to-be doctor can start their working life with the necessary bank accounts and, even better, somebody who has their back when it comes to finances.

As the doctor’s career develops, the relationship banker can play an evolving role, helping them set themselves up for financial success. This could mean sound advice about how to budget in order to invest for their children’s education and retirement.

A particular benefit would be expert help with setting up a private practice, if that is required. Like any business, a doctor’s practice needs to have a clear business plan, with particular emphasis on cash flow.

A skilled relationship banker can help create the business plan and model the cash flow, thereafter helping to access finance as needed.

Doctors have a huge role to play in making our societies better, and with the right kind of bank, they can get the financial rewards they deserve.