The Federal Government has put in place strategies to double the population of medical and dental doctors from 5,000 to 10,000 from the next academic year by increasing admission into the medical and dental institutions.

This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, on Wednesday, at the induction ceremony of foreign-trained medical and dental graduates by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, in Abuja.

Alausa said the exodus of licensed doctors and other health professionals to more developed countries would be discouraged by making the health care environment more attractive.

According to him, the just over 3,000 doctors produced annually in Nigeria remain grossly inadequate, hence, the need to double the rate of production of health workers.

“Equally, we shall expand these opportunities to all other health professionals like pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, community health extension workers, radiographers, and others. Although, this will be in phases. We shall create room to produce more and excess because globally, there’s a shortage of health manpower,  which has been estimated at a shortage of 18 million people,” he stated.

Alausa said his ministry would continue to advocate more funding for the health sector and increase the value chain to attract more international grants and funding.