Health
‘Telehealth can bridge Nigeria’s doctor shortage’
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mobihealth International, Dr Funmi Adewara, has called for the adoption of telehealth to bridge the shortage of doctors across the country.
With the growing exodus of medical professionals, she said it had become imperative for telehealth to become a core pillar of healthcare policy, workforce strategy, and service delivery in Nigeria.
Adewara described telehealth as a critical solution to the country’s growing shortage of healthcare professionals and a key enabler of universal health coverage.
She made the call while speaking as one of the panellists during the Day Two session of the 2026 Eko Health Conference, hosted by the Lagos State Ministry of Health under the theme ‘Building a Healthier Lagos: Connecting Access with Excellence,’ with the sub-theme ‘Leveraging Digital Innovation and Strategic Partnerships for Better Outcomes.’
The conference brought together policymakers, healthcare professionals, researchers, development partners, investors, and private sector organisations to explore innovative approaches to improving healthcare delivery across Lagos State.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that telehealth encompasses the use of phones, computers, and other digital tools to connect patients with healthcare providers without requiring in-person visits to a hospital or clinic.
It allows patients to speak with doctors online, receive medical advice, monitor their health remotely, get diagnoses, and manage prescriptions from the comfort of their homes or locations.
Speaking during the session, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, disclosed that Lagos currently has approximately 7,000 doctors but requires an estimated 40,000 to serve its rapidly growing population.
Alluding to the commissioner’s remarks, Adewara said the figures clearly demonstrate why Nigeria must embrace technology-enabled healthcare delivery rather than relying solely on expanding the physical healthcare workforce.
“Lagos has 7,000 doctors but needs 40,000. We cannot build our way out of this crisis. We must innovate our way out. The future is not about where the doctor is. It is about ensuring the doctor’s expertise is wherever the patient is,” she said.
She noted that even if Nigeria doubled medical school admissions immediately, population growth and the continued migration of healthcare professionals would continue to outpace workforce expansion.
The Mobihealth CEO said, “The solution to Japa is not simply replacing every doctor who leaves. The solution is multiplying the impact of every doctor who remains.”
Adewara explained that telehealth enables healthcare professionals to extend their reach far beyond the walls of hospitals and clinics, allowing patients to receive quality healthcare regardless of location.
She further highlighted the enormous opportunity to harness the expertise of Nigerian healthcare professionals living in the diaspora.
“Imagine a cardiologist in London, a psychiatrist in Manchester, a paediatrician in Toronto, or an oncologist in Houston dedicating just two hours each week to patients, mentoring, or multidisciplinary team meetings in Nigeria. That is how we transform brain drain into brain circulation,” Adewara said.
According to her, digital health makes it possible for Nigerian specialists anywhere in the world to contribute meaningfully to healthcare delivery and multidisciplinary clinical decision-making without relocating.
Adewara stressed that healthcare should no longer be viewed as a choice between digital and physical care, but as an integrated system where both work together seamlessly.
She said, “The future of healthcare is Click & Brick. Digital and physical care are not competing models—they are one seamless system, enabling patients to move effortlessly between virtual and in-person care while their health information follows them securely, eliminating fragmented care and ensuring continuity of care.”
Adewara emphasised that telehealth should no longer be regarded as an experimental innovation or optional service.
“Telehealth is not a pilot project. It is not an optional add-on. It is the national healthcare infrastructure,” she said.
She noted that nearly 70 to 80 per cent of healthcare needs can be safely managed at the primary healthcare level when supported by telehealth, allowing secondary and tertiary hospitals to focus on more complex cases.
Illustrating the untapped clinical capacity telehealth can unlock, she described how a consultant attending a conference in Abuja could, before boarding an evening flight back home, log into a secure telehealth platform and consult patients in Badagry, Epe, Ikorodu or Lagos Island.
“Telehealth creates more doctors’ hours without creating more doctors,” she said.
Adewara added that telehealth also improves affordability, accessibility and continuity of care by reducing unnecessary travel, minimising waiting times and ensuring patients remain connected to healthcare providers throughout their care journey.
She called for stronger public-private partnerships to accelerate telehealth adoption across Nigeria and urged governments to develop enabling policies that encourage innovation while safeguarding patient safety, privacy and quality of care.
She also advocated integrating telehealth into state health insurance programmes and primary healthcare systems to improve access, strengthen referral pathways, enhance health data intelligence, and expand healthcare coverage.
Adewara urged governments, regulators, healthcare providers, development partners, and the private sector to place telehealth at the centre of healthcare planning.
“Healthcare is no longer defined by where the hospital is located. It is defined by how quickly expertise can reach the patient. If we are serious about achieving universal health coverage, improving health outcomes, and addressing Nigeria’s healthcare workforce shortage, telehealth must become an essential part of our national healthcare infrastructure,” she said.
PUNCH Healthwise reported in January that Nigeria’s already fragile healthcare system was facing a critical manpower deficit, as the number of licensed doctors had dropped to about 40,000, far below the estimated 300,000 needed to adequately serve a population of over 220 million.
In 2024, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, revealed that Nigeria had about 55,000 licensed doctors.
Speaking during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today, Pate disclosed that no fewer than 16,000 doctors had left the country in the previous five years, while about 17,000 others had been transferred out of active service.
According to the State of Health of the Nation Report 2025, released in June, no fewer than 20,966 Nigerian health workers relocated abroad within one year.
The report disclosed that the mass exodus included 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory professionals, 702 pharmacists, 658 physiotherapists, and hundreds of other specialists.
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