Claim: An Instagram account and several other media reports alleged that over 16,000 nurses migrated from Nigeria to the United Kingdom in 2025.
Verdict: Misleading! The figure of 16,000 covers nurses who migrated over a period of five years, not just in 2025. The UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) data supports this figure.
Full Text
In recent times, experts have raised concerns about a shortage of healthcare workers in Nigeria. This has intensified calls for greater investment in the healthcare sector, which will eventually reduce brain drain.
Professor Ernest Omoti, President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), recently said more than 130,000 doctors are registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria. Still, only about 55,000 remain in active practice within the country.
Also, the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) has highlighted the challenges facing its members, including training and retraining, remuneration, conditions of service, and the lack of a conducive working environment. NANNM urged the government to implement policies to improve working conditions and remuneration.
Amid these, a claim went viral in May 2026 that over 16, 000 Nigerian nurses left Nigeria for the United Kingdom (UK) in 2025 alone. Some posts attributed the quote to NANNM President Haruna Mamman, who spoke during the commemoration of the 2026 International Day of Nurses.
This figure alarmed many social media users, who questioned its authenticity.
An Instagram user @seth_fasal wrote, “That’s a lie. Even if they count from 2020 till date, e no reach. Kai.”
Another user, @mr_catchy, said, “Untrue. Nigeria has no database that can give you such information.”
A Facebook user, Joseph Jackson, asked, “UK alone? What about other countries?”
The reactions the claim sparked and its impact on the health sector prompted DUBAWA to fact-check it.
Verification
DUBAWA reviewed several media reports of Haruna’s statement and observed that the figures were misinterpreted. According to the report, the NANNM president underscored the need to invest in and empower the nursing workforce, adding that Nigerian-trained nurses and midwives are migrating in droves to other countries in search of better lives.
Punch Newspaper quoted the NANNM chairperson as saying, “For the past five years, over 57,000 Nigerian nurses have left the country for different parts of the world in search of greener pastures. This should call for greater concern from both the Government and other stakeholders.”
This data, covering a five-year period, revealed that 57,000 nurses have migrated to different countries, including 16,000 to the UK, not just in 2025.
DUBAWA further contacted the UK NMC by email to verify the figure, and we were directed to the data on their website. The registration page contained information on how many nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England, are currently able to practise. It also contained information about the number of registered nurses and midwives who joined the register from different countries.
We used information from the September 2025 mid-year data report.
The spreadsheet tagged “UK permanent Register data” specifically identified the country of training of nurses on its register. Those from Nigeria totalled 16,546 out of the total of 860,801.
India had the highest number, with over 70, 000 people on the register, followed by the Philippines with over 50,000. As of September 2025, 14,065 people who trained in Nigeria joined the register for the first time in 6 years.
Meanwhile, the UK NMC notes a slowdown in the number of people joining the register, highlighting significant reductions in international joiners from its largest recruiters, India (57.8% fewer) and the Philippines (68.1% fewer), for the period under review.
It, however, adds that the second- and third-largest sources of international recruitment are now Nigeria and Ghana, although both are ‘red list’ countries. Between April and September 2025, it documented that 931 people joined the register from Nigeria, while the annual report spanning April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, recorded 2,363 from Nigeria.
Conclusion
The claim that over 16, 000 nurses left Nigeria for the UK in 2025 alone is misleading. The figure and its context have been misinterpreted. While over 16,000 nurses are on the NMC UK register, the data spans across several years, not a single one.