Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday said the state faces a deficit of about 40,000 doctors and another 40,000 nurses, while its health sector requires at least N100bn above current budgetary provisions to meet the needs of its growing population.
The governor also disclosed that more than 1.5 million residents had enrolled in the state’s health insurance scheme, Ilera Eko, as the government intensified efforts to build a sustainable healthcare system.
Sanwo-Olu spoke at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention held at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The governor described the shortage of health workers and funding as the two biggest challenges confronting the state’s healthcare system, warning that donor funding for disease control was shrinking. He said Lagos needed about 40,000 doctors to properly serve its population but currently had only about 7,000, alongside a need for roughly 40,000 more nurses, noting that every doctor in the state was effectively doing the work of 10.
He explained that the second major gap was funding, pointing to a shortfall of at least N100bn between what the health budget provides and what the system genuinely requires. He added that donor financing, which had supported much of the state’s disease control efforts for two decades, was contracting sharply and would not return in its previous form.
Despite the challenges, the governor said the state had begun addressing the workforce deficit through aggressive recruitment, improved welfare packages and plans to establish a University of Medicine and Health Sciences. He said the state had recruited aggressively and had opened clinical recruitment across all twenty-nine of its secondary facilities the previous month, while also building accommodation for health workers and improving conditions to slow departures and attract colleagues back.
On health insurance, Sanwo-Olu said the state’s compulsory social health insurance policy had continued to expand coverage since the domestication of the National Health Insurance Authority Act. He said more than one and a half million Lagosians were now enrolled in Ilera Eko, with the figure standing at 1,502,994 as at the end of May, more than half of them women. He noted that utilisation was rising, which he said indicated that coverage was translating into actual care rather than merely resulting in cards in wallets.
The governor said the Lagos State Health Management Agency’s Assistance in Distress programme had saved 18 lives since it became operational in March, citing cases involving road traffic injuries, surgical emergencies, obstetric crises and strokes, and stressing that those 18 people were alive because the system had not stopped to ask whether they could afford care.
Sanwo-Olu also said the government was deploying technology to improve healthcare delivery through the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform, which is currently being implemented across public health institutions. According to him, the platform will enable patients’ medical records to be accessed seamlessly across healthcare facilities, improve disease surveillance and support evidence-based planning. He added that the government was also investing in artificial intelligence and digital innovation to strengthen diagnosis, medical imaging and health service delivery.
The governor reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to building institutions rather than projects, insisting that reforms such as Ilera Eko, the health districts and the digital health platform must endure beyond his tenure. He said the administration had kept its promises and was now building the systems that would sustain them long after his time in office.
