On Tuesday 12th of May, the Federal Government of Nigeria agreed to increase the retirement age of doctors and health workers to 65.
Speaking to reporters, the minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige after a meeting with the Health Sector Professional Associations and Trade Unions said “We’ve accepted their proposal. The Government will firm up its own proposal and we will reconvene on the 1st of June so we can have an agreed Hazard Allowance for health workers in Nigeria.
We also discussed the issue of retirement age for health workers, being that we want to keep our health workers here in Nigeria. A lot of people are coming here to poach and take away people we’ve trained at a very great cost. It takes a lot of funds to train a medical doctor, nurse, or even a laboratory technologist or physiotherapist.”
Emmanuel Ujah (President, Nigerian Medical Association) and his Joint Health Sector Union colleague Josiah Biobelemoye showed optimism stating an agreement will be reached soon.
