The Federal Government of Nigeria has concluded plans to deploy medical personnel to Guinea Bisau amidst scarcity in Nigeria.

According to a notice released on the website of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the government regulatory agency for the practice of medicine in the country, interested professionals are to apply for deployment to the country.

The doctors, who will be recruited by the Technical Aid Corps as part of its aid to the country, will spend two years in the Republic of Guinea Bisau “in the first instance”.

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“The Technical Aid Corps has requested the council to bring to the notice of registered medical practitioners its need to urgently recruit specialists… for deployment as part of a period of two years in the first instance,” the notice reads.

“Interested specialists who are desirous of participating in the technical aid should apply to the registrar within seven (7) days from Monday 11th October 2021, stating their folio numbers and other details.”

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Meanwhile, Shakuri Kadiri, Deputy Director and Head of Human Resources at the Federal Ministry of Health, revealed in March that the country has a total number of 74,543 registered doctors in 2018.

With the country’s population of 198 million at the time, according to the estimation by the National Population Commission, doctors to patients ratio stood at 1:2753.

Whereas, the World Health Organisation recommends 10 doctors per 10,000 patients, a ratio of 1:1000, and described anything less as “insufficient”. Going by this estimation, Nigeria needs additional 123,457 personnel to cater to its population.