KEY POINTS

• Lagos has about 7,000 doctors but needs roughly 40,000 more, plus 40,000 additional nurses, Sanwo-Olu said.
• The health sector needs at least N100bn above its current budget as donor funding for disease control shrinks.
• More than 1.5 million residents, over half of them women, have enrolled in the Ilera Eko insurance scheme.

Lagos State needs about 40,000 more doctors and 40,000 more nurses, and its health sector requires at least N100bn above current budget provisions to serve a fast-growing population, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said on Thursday.

Moreover, the governor said more than 1.5 million residents have enrolled in the state health insurance scheme, Ilera Eko, as the government pushes to build a sustainable healthcare system. He spoke at the opening of the second Eko Health Convention at the Oriental Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Lagos doctor shortage and funding gaps dominate

According to Sanwo-Olu, the shortage of health workers and the funding gap rank as the two biggest challenges facing the system, and both pressures now shape almost every decision it makes. Currently, Lagos has about 7,000 doctors, and each one effectively does the work of 10. Furthermore, he warned that donor financing, which supported disease control for two decades, is contracting sharply and will not return in its old form.

Still, the governor said the state has started to close the workforce gap through aggressive recruitment, better welfare packages and plans for a University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Last month, officials opened clinical recruitment across all 29 secondary facilities. In addition, the state has built accommodation for health workers and improved conditions to slow departures and draw former colleagues back.

Insurance and technology expand care

Meanwhile, coverage under the compulsory social health insurance policy keeps growing since the state domesticated the National Health Insurance Authority Act. By the end of May, enrollment reached 1,502,994 residents, and women made up more than half. Consequently, Sanwo-Olu said rising utilization shows that coverage now translates into real care rather than idle cards.

He added that the Lagos State Health Management Agency’s Assistance in Distress programme has saved 18 lives since March, covering road crashes, surgical emergencies, obstetric crises and strokes. Additionally, the state is rolling out the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform so facilities can share patient records, sharpen disease surveillance and guide planning. Therefore, the government is also investing in artificial intelligence to strengthen diagnosis, imaging and service delivery. Finally, Sanwo-Olu stressed that he wants lasting institutions rather than one-off projects, so reforms like Ilera Eko outlast his tenure.