By Kazeem Waris
The Federal Government has unveiled plans to establish six world-class medical simulation centres across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to strengthen practical training for the country’s rapidly expanding healthcare workforce.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, disclosed this while receiving the report of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Medical Simulation Committee, saying the centres would provide modern facilities for hands-on training of medical, nursing, pharmacy, dental and other allied health students.
The plan comes amid a sharp rise in enrolment into health-related programmes, with nursing admissions increasing from about 38,000 students three years ago to more than 120,000 currently.
Alausa also disclosed that annual medical school admissions had risen from about 5,000 when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office to nearly 12,000 currently.
He said the government plans to raise annual medical student admissions to about 20,000 within the next three years, making investment in practical training facilities increasingly urgent.
“Our goal in the next three years will increase the number of annual medical student enrollment in medical school to about 20,000,” he said.
The minister said admissions into pharmacy and dental programmes had also doubled, stressing that the expansion in student numbers must be matched with corresponding investment in the quality of training.
According to him, the proposed simulation centres would bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-life clinical practice by giving students opportunities to develop critical skills in controlled environments before treating patients.
Alausa said the initiative was consistent with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration, particularly its efforts to expand Nigeria’s healthcare workforce while improving the quality of professional training.
“I would like to thank the members of the committee that has worked so hard and assiduously to get us to this point in which we are now talking about building several simulation centres across the country to provide world-class training for our medical students, dental students, nursing students, pharmacy students and other allied healthcare professionals,” he said.
He commended the Chairman of the Medical Simulation Committee, Dr Wale Suleiman, and other members for developing the framework for the centres.
The committee also drew expertise from key professional and regulatory bodies, including the Medical and Dental Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council and Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, as well as academia.
Alausa described the project as a further demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to raising educational standards as Nigeria works to produce a larger and better-trained healthcare workforce.
He assured that government would continue to support the development of the TETFund Medical Simulation Centres across the six geopolitical zones, with the objective of ensuring that the growing number of students entering healthcare professions receive high-quality, practical and globally competitive training.
The minister said the expansion of health professional education was already yielding results, adding that the government remained focused on developing the human capital needed to drive Nigeria’s future growth.
